What paint are you using for tanks ?

[Externet]

Greetings.
My couple of aluminium 80's want to be preetier. Now as plain brushed finish, no clearcoat.
In doubt if should be a super duper coat against dings, or a simple whatever off-the-shelf that can be scraped-off later with not too much effort. If clear coat only, would need a bath in some chemical? to make the stains go away first.

 

[lexvil]

 

[Pressurehead]

Don't know how your cylinder test stations work over there, but I know from past experience in Oz, a cylinder/ tank with fresh paint is a "red flag" to the person testing it.
Here they are tested every year, and it's a hydro.

 

[rhwestfall]

If corrosion prevention was the purpose, I get it, but just for looks..... I don't see a reason. One trip, and I'd be "prettying it up again". Not worth my time IMHO.

Have fun.

 

[keyshunter]

For saltwater, your tanks already have the best finish. I recently removed the clearcoat from a pair of Catalinas. Small cracks in the clearcoat allowed salt to accumulate beneath the finish.

 

[Nathan Doty]

Everyone has their tastes, if you want a pretty tank, you want a pretty tank. If you want one that's all buggered up, that's what you want. No biggie.
I've painted several using plasti-dip. It's a rubber coating and you just peel it off when you're done. It's ok for durability, doesn't flake because its rubber. Most spray paint will flake, and that ends up in the water column.

Everyone I did I ended up peeling and hitting with a fresh coat of zinc because the novelty wore off quickly. But I could definitely spot my tanks... Ive since sold all of them. No dive shop had an issue with them with any of the coatings. The tank guy says as long as it 'sands off easy' so he knows it isn't a baked coating, he doesn't care.

Now I have shiny new fabers... not super shiny any more, but still new.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

If it’s an aluminum 80 why not just strip all the paint off and polish it out?
I had a few I did that with and they were great!

 

[Bazzathemammoth]

If it’s an aluminum 80 why not just strip all the paint off and polish it out?
I had a few I did that with and they were great!

That sounds awesome, any pics?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

That sounds awesome, any pics?

Somewhere back in history on my old desk top.
Nothing current.
But it’s really easy to do if you have a few polishing essentials.
All you need to do is carefully sand off the paint with an orbital sander with fine sandpaper like 220 to start then finish it up with 400 or even 600.
I use wheel polishing buffs on a right angle grinder/polisher and rouge bars from black emory up to green. Drain the tank first (obviously) and don’t remain polishing in one spot too long so it doesn’t cause too much heat. I also don’t over sand them, just enough to sand out the previous sand scratches and not enough to make the grain of the metal disappear. If you look closely you will see grain lines in aluminum tanks. As long as you can still see some low grain spots you’ll be fine since they are the thinnest part of the tank. But we’re talking thousandths so when you look at the thickness of the tank wall, sanding off a few thousandths is virtually nothing.
You should really get the tank hydro’d after just for insurance that the metallurgy is still fine.
After that, all you need to do is give it a quick polish by hand once in a while with some liquid aluminum wheel polish on a microfiber and it will shine up like a mirror again.
They stay cool in the sun too because the mirror finish reflects all the sunlight and heat.

 

[Bazzathemammoth]

Sweet. I dive steel, so its probably not a good idea for my tanks haha. I have stripped/polished ali b4 and it looks really good.