Re-coating fiberglass antenna

If you catch a nasty-### splinter off of that antenna, you wont need to worry about coating it LOL (don't ask me how I know this...)

 

Yeah that will work, I forgot the details of it but what I used to do when I end up with antennas that had broken tips or ones that were just a shaft, and make 6 and 2 meter antennas out of them.

NOW as for the base antenna, I would not use either one of them that is suggested, those are disasters waiting to happen. I thought I posted it here but I see I posted it somewhere else.

My brother-in-law owns a boat repair shop on lake Michigan and when I was speaking to the SOB, I would do work for him on the radio equipment on commercial fishing boats. When it came to antennas (which were all fiberglass) I never replaced the antennas unless it was really damaged but repaired them. Replacing them costs a bunch of money, I can't see doing that with a functional antenna. After 10 years of repairing them, I never had one come back to do it again or been replaced. I followed the standard procedure that companies came up with back in the 70's. I used aircraft paint I had to mix which was a PIA but now the boat paints work really well and are a lot cheaper.

The normal repair procedure for these antennas is paint it with a polyurethane paint that has no metal in it. ANY color will work by the way but it has to have NO METAL in the paint. I now use Brightside one step polyurethane topside paint that I got for nothing and works for many things. You can use any polyurethane paint or for that matter any good paint that is UV resistant but I would not use anything that has plastic in it like plas-dip or or asphalt/rubber sealer (which I think that Flex sealer is based on).

This is so simple. Of course you have to do more than just these steps like you need to clean the antenna after sanding (tack it) but it will last if you do all of it right.

so simple ...

First take some 400 grit paper and sand what you are going to paint so it is smooth.

Take the paint, mix it and paint it, let it dry really well.

Then sand it smooth and put a second coat on it.

Let it dry for at least one day then put it back up.

That's it.

By the way, two things

one is if you need primer, some antennas will soak up the paint if they are weather damaged a lot, you could apply a third coat to it if it does but because I can't judge for myself what's going on because I'm not there, then you have to figure it out. the chances are you won't need a primer.

AND if it is applied right, meaning the right prep work done, sanding done carefully and cleaned up before painting, the paint will flex with the antenna no matter how hard it is bent.

Oh don't use a sponge brush, you a good bristle brush. I never ever could get a sponge brush to work right for me other than staining.

How much paint?

One antenna will take a little over a Pint of paint but get a quart which should be about $25 to $30.