recovering floor on 18' aluminum center console

[nicnat]

I am going to recover my deck with kiwigrip which will stick to pretty much anything according to the directions. I have a rubber based covering now which has been great but looking a bit beat up. there are a few areas, maybe 15-20% of the deck which I have scraped down to the bare aluminum, it was cracking a bit in those spots from small gas spills etc so the rubber base scraped off easily, the rest is stuck like shxx to a blanket so I plan on just painting over top of it.

the kiwigrip calls for a primer on the bare aluminum, so what would you aluminum experts recommend using for a primer in this situation? is there a rubber based type of primer I can use? the present coating on the deck is about 1/8" thick so I was hoping I can use something I can apply to bring it up close to level with the old covering. I have it ground down and feathered around all edges. I can always just a apply thicker coating of kiwigrip in these spots if a thinner coating of some etching compound is best to use for the primer.

I really don't want to take it in and have the thing sandblasted to remove the rest of the old coating as it seems fine.

looking forward to any advice on this as I have never really painted or covered anything aluminum.

 

[1marko]

pictures would help...

 

[Alex_c]

Zinc chromate primer on bare aluminum. Make sure you prep the metal properly with an acid wash and degreaser.

 

[ryanb]

I'm going to guess nothing is going to bond very well to the rubber based coating underneath if you were to paint over it. Maybe try some test patches in high traffic areas before you do the whole thing.

 

[nicnat]

already did a test patch and it bonded quite well. it's not really a rubber coating, more like a rhino lining type of product, if I knew what it was I would use it again but I have heard lots of good things about the kiwigrip from people who have used it on different surfaces. I was just looking to see what was available as a primer for the bare alum areas. I have some zinc chromate so looks like that is what I will use.

 

[Charter Tofino]

Try using a 2 part roll on epoxy. I think the brand I used was seawest from Trotac. It will help it bond to both the rubber and the bare aluminum.

 

[Ceilidh69]

Just applied Kiwigrip to my welded aluminum's floor this week. Previous floor was quite worn and appears to be some type of epoxy resin (I think) with integral grit. No primer applied by me and the Kiwigrip appears to have bonded very well even where the old flooring was worn. Great texture, cleanup was a breeze and it looks great.

 

[nicnat]

I finished mine the other day, looks good, great stuff, I did apply a primer to the bare aluminum I had scraped down to in spots as the kiwigrip people recommended, just need to maybe add one more coat to those areas to bring the thickness up a bit, barely noticeable. did you use the kiwi roller to apply yours?

 

[Ceilidh69]

Yes bought the larger roller and did not use the small ones that come in the top of the can. 1.5 cans for a 21' centre console.