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Painting bare aluminum

I constructed a bare aluminum cover for the exterior portion of my window air conditioner.I want to paint it white to blend with the house color. I find that painting it with a latex primer doesn't work too well. I was thinking of washing it with a mild solution of vinegar ⇦in bulk on eBay or Amazon [affil links] to probably cause the paint to adhere better. Is this a reasonable approach?

John Supranovicz
Retired engineer - Tewksbury, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
2004

I have found the best approach is to coat bare aluminum with zinc chromate primer, then you can overcoat it with anything. Don't know how this would work over a previous coating, however, but probably not as well.

Carl Erickson
retired metallurist - Vernon, New York
2004

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