MS400 Rear Salon Door Removal

[Capt Mike]

Have any MS400 owners removed the salon double door frame to have it painted or powder coated? The exterior of the door frame on my 400 is peeling paint badly and my thought was to have it sent out and powder coated. I hired the yard to remove the door frame and send it out but they are struggling with the removal. They have removed all the screws but the frame seems to be held in pretty well with caulking, unless we are missing something. Does anyone else have experience with this project?

 

[garmstro55]

Mike, I had the same idea, removing the frame and powder coating. However, getting any of the screws to budge was near impossible. I chalked it up to dissimilar metal corrosion. Plus, I couldn't figure how I was going to transport the frame seeing as it wouldn't fit in my small SUV. Maybe if I had a pickup truck...

Anyway, I decided to do it the hard way, which was to scrape off the old paint and re-paint. Yes, I know painting aluminum is hard, but I figured it couldn't look any worse and maybe I'd have to repaint in a few years.

So I went at it with a combination of scrapers, putty knives, sandpaper, sanding sponges, steel wool, Dremel, etc. and got 95% of the paint off. Once that was accomplished, in looking at the result I decided to leave it as bare aluminum. It pretty much matches the door, which, in my case, is also bare aluminum.

It's been that way about two years and nobody has ever made a negative comment about it so, for now, I'm leaving it.

If you have the painted door, a bare frame might not look good but if you have the aluminum door you could consider this approach.

 

[Comodave]

I wouldn’t use steel wool as it will leave small particles of steel embedded in the aluminum and they will rust.

 

[Dougcole]

Don't remove them, leave them in place and refinish with Awlgrip. I did the outside of mine a couple of years ago (they still look great) and the insides a few weeks ago. Here is a thread on how to do it or your yard should be up to the task. It took me about two days to finish the outsides and about the same for the interiors. Most of that is drying time. Probably 4 hours of actual work for each side.


I did a little better job on the insides, (more experienced with it, I guess). As I said in the linked thread below on the outsides I did not sand between the coats of epoxy primer and on the finish coats the finest grit I sanded with was 120. On the insides I sanded the first and second coats of primer smooth with 120. On the the first coat of the finish coat I took it down to 120, but went to 220 before the final coat. A little more work but worth it, IMO.



I don't think the cost and potential damage done by removing them is worth it. And honestly, having them powder coated likely wouldn't last much longer than painting them, assuming you prep them correctly. Anyway, here is the link, I'm happy to offer any help (such as it is) if you need it:


https://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s11/mainship-400-cockpit-door-refinishing-54120.html


Hope that helps.


Doug