Cost to powdercoat tower or aluminum cleaning/polishing tips

My non-anodized Aerial Airborne tower looks terrible after 1.5 years under my carport despite my best efforts to maintain it. It really looks like hell for its age and Mother's Mag polish is not enough to get the pitting and surface corrosion off. Anyway, I'm thinking about having it powdercoated black. What should I expect to pay for that assuming I remove the tower and bring it to the shop?

Alternatively does anybody know of any magic sauce that will chemically remove the surface corrosion without a ton of elbow grease? It takes me 2-3 hrs just to do a once over of the tower, racks and speakers to make them look somewhat presentable with the Mother's Mag Polish. I've tried Nev-R-Dull (Or however you spell it) and that didn't really work very well.

Thanks,
Jeff

There is a recent post where somebody had their (large) Bimni frame done for around 150. That is encouraging. I will need my tower done once I finish bending and welding it to fit. I would have polished it if the cost was pushing 500.

Sounds like you boat in the brine as do I. Rupp Alumiguard is the best stuff on Earth to protect exposed aluminum.
Period, no contest, once you get it polished apply the Rupps . You will be happy.

Originally Posted by baitkiller

Sounds like you boat in the brine as do I..

Actually the boat has never seen salt water and I'm not near salt either. So, I'm a bit shocked at how fast it corrodes.

I got a couple different quotes from shops here in Las Vegas to powdercoat my Mobius XLV tower black chrome and it was anywhere from 225-450... If that helps/?

It was $400 for the tower on the MB.

I have a DIY pro wake tower on mine, its exactly 1 year old and still looks decent, I just use mothers aluminum wheel cleaner on it and it comes out pretty good. Is there a clear powdercoat? Or would painting a clear coat on it protect it any? I love the look of the polished aluminum but yea its work to try and keep it clean.

Ever considered clear PCing or maybe even going ahead and having it clear anodized?

My experience here is that the larger industrial type shops feel the small jobs are a lot of trouble and they charge accordingly. They may also not use UV resilent powder if you slip into their normal line-up of PC work. However, the smaller shops with smaller clients, are typically less expensive and use whatever powder you want. I love PC, even did some at home with great results.

I was thinking it would look kinda good with a black tower anyway:


I didn't get the black when I bought it because I heard that the Aerial powder coating was terrible and faded to gray pretty quickly.

Also, if I go black I don't have to do a pristine job of re-polishing it like I would if going to a clear powder or anodized coating.

If your in Dallas area call Quality Powder Coating, they quoted me $600 to bast and coat a tandem trailer. They do all of Disney's work. The owner powdercoated his whole boat dock! They have colors like CAMO, all kinds of woodgrains, chrome and even carbon fiber.

Originally Posted by Txjole

If your in Dallas area call Quality Powder Coating, they quoted me $600 to bast and coat a tandem trailer. They do all of Disney's work. The owner powdercoated his whole boat dock! They have colors like CAMO, all kinds of woodgrains, chrome and even carbon fiber.

That's a good price for a trailer especially with the prep work. I need to do something with my trailer eventually too. I'm in Baton Rouge though. I've emailed a local powder coating place to see what they think.

I was shocked with how low the price was. Ended up selling that boat without doing the trailer, but if my Ram-lin ever needs it I know where to go.

The metal corroding might be bad if powder coated. I use my boats in salt water and both towers that were powder coated black started to corrode under the powder coat making it chip off. It seems to only do it where the mounts are: the bimini mounts, tower mounts, and where the tower folds. I don't know how but its very depressing to see haha. Have you looked into maybe rhino lining the tower?

my .02... let it go grey.... I drive transport for a living and was forever polishing, same with the tower on my old boat. I'd rather be using my time to do other things like ride than polish. With power coating the problem it when you chip it the moisture gets in and it starts to flake off. I'd only polish it if your going to sell it cause you'll never keep up with the oxidizing.
So just let it go man.... just let it go.

$250 for the FCT on my 02 SANTE

like jamie mentioned the powdercoating will chip. ( if your trailer it's worse). I have rims powdercoated before. I was always repairing nicks.

mother's aluminum polish works failry well...use their power ball adapter ( for a drill) to save time.

living on the water for years ( and storing my boat on a lift) ...i used to spray my towers with a light coat of silicone...helped a ton.

I always run across these type of posts and wonder...
What is your cleaning and polishing schedule? Is your boat covered? Do you live near the ocean? After taking it out, do you rinse it off with good clean water (not crummy hose water like I have) wipe it down, use a cleaner with the proper pH? No offense, but if you are letting your metal get bad to the point like you described with pitting and surface corrosion then you're probably neglecting it and your "best efforts" are sub par. It's called PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE. Good thing you didn't buy a $2,500 tower- would have experienced the same problems. Maybe by a plastic tower?

Oxidation of metal or pH reactions to stuff in the air won't be stopped by an overhead car port. It's in the air... oxidation... as in oxygen. If we don't care for our expensive stuff, we can't expect it to last very long. My 5.5 year old tower is polished not annodized and is flawless. I have a few classic cars, my boats (wake and fishing), truck, atvs, a Harley and I spend [way too much] time keeping them pretty, clear of contamination and protected. It's a full time job to protect your investments.

Annodized finish doesn't mean anything- in fact, you have to be even more careful how you clean it because using the wrong cleaner can quickly ruin the finish and then you get an odd ball patchy surface. My Boston Whaler has a load of annodized pieces. I was lazy and wasn't cleaning the inside of my rod holders where all the water from the poles drip down into- the insides and bottom are wrecked. Anyway, the point is we need to take better care of our stuff. My Grandfather hand polished every square inch of his 42' Packard every Sunday for decades and taught me the importance of maintenance. That car is still in the family, still gets detailed and it looks brand new.

Personally, I think powder coated towers look sick! Normally I go for polished but a black on would be awesome. Did you ever get it done? What was the cost and how did it turn out? Is it still black?