No paint on skeg? why?

[Mell]

I am lloking at a used boat and have a question for you all. 2004 motor with 50hours(or so they say)200hp motor and almost all the paint is off the skeg. I really like the boat, but do not understand how you take ALL the paint off of a skeg/lowerunit. I understand running it though sand and power loading the boat, but this seems excessive for a motor with 50hours on it. What do you think?

[karpbuster]

Hmmm. I thought this post can't be real, mine is pretty silver looking. LOL Trolling deep water will keep your skeg painted. I have a black Merc spray paint bottle to fix it, just haven't yet. :)

karpbuster

[Mell]

Maybe I should be more clear. No paint on the bottom 8-10 inches of the motor. NONE. Almost like it was sand blasted off. I understand losing some paint, they all do that, but I have never seen one like this.

[BojiHawk]

My guess is one of 3 things:

River Rat - my buddies boat has no paint on it either and he uses is on the Missouri near Sante. Occasionally, we would put her up on a sandbar or brush over one in about 18" of water. Do that about twice and the paint would be gone.

Rebuilt Lower - Some rebuilds do not use a super high quality paint, but have all new cores. Paint flakes off easy.

Beaches on a lake - I use my skeg to hold the back of the boat solid when I stop somewhere to use a restroom or grab some food. Doesn't do much to it though.

I would pull the lower plug on the unit and check it for exessive metal filings. I NICKED a rock at Mille Lacs, and I mean NICKED IT, with a stainless prop and trashed a gear in my lower. If your concerned, take it to a marina and have them drop the lower and inspect it...doens't take that much when you have the tools and facilties to do it. I wouldn't do it at home, but then I'm kind of chicken about that stuff.

[Unlogged T-Mac]

5-10 seconds in mud at a good clip can do it. :)

If the lower unit holds pressure and vacuum and has no water in the lube, I wouldn't worry much about the missing paint.
I did it on a 150 yamaha in about 3 seconds one time. It got shallower than I anticipated, more quickly than I anticipated... it was then that I noticed we were slowing down and my rooster tail was mud colored.

I tilted up part way...idled out to deeper water and took off again.
It was fine, fine silt sand where I had contacted bottom. ...Shined up the skeg real pretty. No harm done. The stainless steel prop was really polished up nicely, too.

[Ristorapper]

Riverrat here. Never been much paint on my skag since I bought a boat. We run shallow river here and you can tell which boat is a river boat and which is a lake boat (or a real careful riverrat). With the sand here the only thing I'd be worried about is the impeller from sucking in all the sand from running shallow waters (sandy bottom). Get the impeller replaced if you are worried or wait for the alarm and then you are good to go. If she is a merc, get yourself a can of flat black or merc touch up and make it look "new" for you at least.

I've always thought about getting some touch up paint but for me it won't last long!! The longest it would last is from November or December when I put it away until April when I get it out.



good fishing.

[BojiHawk]

John Deere makes a really nice flat black paint for the engines called Blitz Black I think...but it is a flat finish. There is a product called POR-15 that is pretty nice also, but spendy. It's black but needs to be painted over. If you have a semi-scuffed surface and apply POR-15...let dry...then scuff the POR and paint...it holds very well. Problem is the POR-15 is almost $100 a gallon...lot of money for a pretty boat part that spends most it's time either underwater or in a storage unit.

[wheels]

They come with paint on them? :-)

"Friends don't let friends fish for trout!"

[hugh]

Is the paint gone all the way up and over the bullet to the first split. Split meaning where you would take the lower unit off?

I ask because if it is, the make a lower unit, right from mercury, like that. What kind of boat is it on, that may help as well because the bass guys really get into the shart.

[tcfish]

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