Refinish Cowl Vent

[William Matley]

Has anyone refinished their cowl deck vents?

I have added this job to my winter boat work and wonder if anyone has any suggestions. The cowl is flexible and the base appears to be some kind of plastic. Not sure what paint will work on the flexible cowl and how to get the plastic base smooth again.

Picture attached

Thanks
Bill Matley
Spirit of Aloha
1252 (1993)

[cillman]

Bill - Laura on the C36 mailing list talked about success using a Krylon spray a couple weeks ago. I didn't note the exact name of the product. I also think Nicro makes a cleaner.

[William Matley]

Craig,

Krylon, makes a spray paint that is formulated for plastic. Rustolium, makes one also but I am concerned about the flexible part of the vent.

The plastic base is weathered badly and I wonder if anyone has tried to sand it or coat it with something.

I'd like to hear from some one who's already done it and had some experience with their results.

[caprice 1050]

William
Funny you should ask. I just finished putting a final coat of paint on my cowls this morning and have the spray can in front of me. I use NICRO-COTE, N-28630, sold by Nicro who makes our cowls. Their address is 2655 Napa Valley Corporate Drive, Napa, CA, 94558. Acording to the label on the spay can it can be used for vinyl plastic or PVC surfaces.

I don't know who sells this paint becasue the P.O. gave it to me.

[William Matley]

So Mike, how does it look?

What preparation did you do?

[Following Seas]

I just finished mine yesterday. First, I scrubed them with hot water and Simple Green. Used one of those green scrubby pads. I found it best to unscrew the base from the cowl. I did try some sanding but some "wrinkes" were just to deep. I used Krylon paint for plastic. I painted the red inside first. After it dried I put the oval opening face down (so the white overspray would not get in). Then sprayed about five or six light coats. It filled in most of the cracks. I let it dry and there back on deck. It made all the difference and for about ten bucks too! David

[William Matley]

Thanks David,
Sounds like a plan!

[caprice 1050]

Sounds like David did a proper job of it. I just removed the cowls, cleaned the outside with water and after they were dry I sprayed four coats of paint on them. They look good.

[Steve Frost]

This is some great info, my Dorades have some major craters in the finish, I was planning on just replacing them with stainless when I get rich. I may just sand them smooth and try the paint suggested.

Thanks for sharing.

[mutualfun]

Steve:
Here is a vent that I went to a few years back as I picked them up at the Strictly Sail in Chicago. Usually you can get a good deal on them. I brought them home for the winter to pint the base,as in Michigan we have a 6 month maintenance program due to hard water. Here is he link for them, I looked and they are $189 now,
http://www.marinershardware.com/OrdCowlLow.php
Randy

[dejavu]

Those look great Randy. Any manufacturer info on them?

Mike

[Laura]

I used Krylon Fusion. Painted the cowls in May- they still look great!

Laura

[windward]

I repainted mine last year by first removing them and applying 2 coats of Kilz primer (tough stuff) and them spraying painting them with a high gloss exterior enamel. The primer covered all stains and filled pitted areas and provided a good base for the finish coats. The results were very good.

Richard
CAT 36
#1347

[nelson]

The cowl vents on my 1991 C36 (made by Vetus), were severely discolored. I ended up sanding them down and priming them, then painting them with Brightside. That lasted for about two years. Then the cowls themselves started cracking. So I gave up and bought the replacement cowls by Vetus (Tom2) at Jamestown Distributors. They were expensive, but they look great and could be installed without modifying the ventilator mechanism, which still works fine.

Nicro spray paint is available at West Marine.

--Nelson

[Gary Bain]

When I purchased Gone With The Wind in 2003 it had cowl vents just like the picture submitted. Someone in the yard suggested using lacquer thinner or acetone, LT is less harsh. We used the LT and I was surprised how well it cleaned up the white exterior of the flexible portion as well as the red. It was apparent that removing the corosion caused by UV did leave the surface rough. We clean annually with the LT and they remain very white. I cleaned the base with rubbing compond and then polished it has held up well also. Just a thought in case you do not want to paint.
Gary

[Spanki]

About 3 months ago I took my badly pitted and moldy (boat sat unattended for 3+ years before we found her) sanded them and coated with spray on plasti-coat used for tools, they still are the crappiest looking things on our Spanki. Does any one know of a source that has a resonable price for the stainless dorades?

[mutualfun]

Spanki:

I did a post on the first page (post #10) in which I have picture of one that I redone. It gives the web addy and a picture of of of ours. I used the old base and had to do some minor rework to make the base ring fit.

Randy