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Hi All,
Just to let you know, I’ve completed the restoration and painting of my FDE-11, and fired it up for the first time today. Thanks again for all the help along the way, it is greatly appreciated.
The last thing I need to do is apply the decals, and there are few spots to touch up with the paint. I should be able to drop it in the water next weekend and start breaking it in. Any advise on breaking it in with the new pistons?
Some photos of the painting process…
Here is the assembled tank with new hose and diaphragm:
I used the North York Marine Alkyd Enamels and a $15 harbor freight HVLP Spray gun. Overall the paint was easy to work with and flowed out nicely. I spent two days in the spray booth. The first day I was able to prime everything, and after 3 hours cure time painted the Cream on the cowl, propeller, and other bits. I bought a pint of primer, and it was just enough to do the job. If I was doing this again, I would go with 1 1/2 pint or a quart to be safe. The 1/2 pint of Cream was more than enough. The second day, I painted the red tank, black tank bits, taped off the cowl, and laid down the 1957 Holiday Bronze.
Surface prep was just the sand blasted bare aluminum. I hosed down everything with a couple cans of brake cleaner to do a final degrease. I was going to use lacquer thinner, but after looking into that a bit more it is very flammable. Other than the very bottom of the gear case, the brake cleaner did a fine job. The gear case either had some sealant on it or the brake cleaner didn’t get all the oil off. so there is some fish eye and runs. You don’t really see them unless the motor is tilted up. The primer leveled the surface, and the top coat is pretty flat. It could be wet sanded and buffed out, but I think it is pretty good as it is.
Here is a link to a video showing it running: https://youtu.be/mWeNuFLdOas
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