Powder Coating Spars, Any Luck?

[Southern Gales]

Has anyone attempted to powder coat the mast and boom? How did that hold up? Does anyone have any concerns with having the spars powder coated? Thanks!

[Pete]

From what I know about powder coating the powder is applied to an electrically charged piece and then baked in an oven. Might be a challenge finding an oven of that size.

[Stef]

Would be a challenge to powdercoat.

I painted mine with Interlux Perfection two part. Stripped to bare metal using paint stripper and steel wool. Went pretty easy. Applied aluminum primer (translucent yellow color). Then a gray primer (recipe from Interlux). Did all this will foam roller. Then applied Perfection (mixed what I needed) doing roll and tip method. Looks powdercoated! I get lots of complements. Did boom first to get warmed up. I got fancy and added the double pin stripe on each side of the mast.

[Southern Gales]

The largest powder coating oven I found is 30 feet. They charge $4/foot for coating and $4/foot for sandblast. I plan to coat the toe rail then two booms. Thanks for the mast painting info.!

[Stef]

#461. I had a set of sails #461 when I purchased Odyssey in 2004.

[Southern Gales]

Hey Stef, Did you just move the 1 to make 146?
What other challenges do you see with powder coating besides trying to find an oven large enough?

[Stef]

I tried moving the 1, but it never really adhered. I finally needed a repair, so had them re-do the numbers while it was there.

I have things powdercoated every day for my business. I have three vendors I use but none have an oven 32' long. 14' is the largest I believe. For me, the effort to make that happen, it is much easier using the two part Perfection from Interlux. Plus, I tied strings to halyards to remove them, then just pulled them back through when done. If it goes in an oven at 450F, you can't do that. Roll it on with a foam roller, then lightly go over it with a decent brush. It will come out as good as powdercoating. Did mine several years ago and it still looks as good as it did when I finished it.

[Jeffrey]

prepped and masked

finished

Another option, I had my body shop paint the mast and boom. I did the sanding, not all the way down, just to smooth out some of the bad spots. I bought the paint and prep paint they recommended, and they sprayed the mast and boom for me.

[Southern Gales]

Thanks guys. painting the spars it is. I do have access to a 30' oven near my work in st. pete. I need to coat the toe rail before I install it. It sounds like powder coating the toe rail is still a good option due to all the holes and wear/ tear with metal to metal contact, right?