# Aluminum clad windows



## Seattlepainting (Jun 8, 2010)

Any Paint Talk Contractors ever paint Aluminum Clad windows?

What paint products are you guys using on these substrates.

We are using XIM and exterior grade paints.


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## Susan (Nov 29, 2011)

Assuming you mean what I think you mean..DTM. The last time was years ago but I think it was Super Spec acryllic semi DTM.


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## madochio (Oct 26, 2011)

DTM (direct to metal) is the only way i know that will work without priming with XIM


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## mudbone (Dec 26, 2011)

Have had good sucess with Zinnsers Bondz maximum adhesion primer as base coat .


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## aaron61 (Apr 29, 2007)

We just completed quite a few on some condos.bronze tone DTM.Works every time.


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## Schmidt & Co. (Nov 6, 2008)

Seattlepainting said:


> Any Paint Talk Contractors ever paint Aluminum Clad windows?
> 
> What paint products are you guys using on these substrates.
> 
> We are using XIM and exterior grade paints.


Raw aluminum, or factory painted?


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## NaplesPainter (Aug 3, 2011)

If you plan to keep them the same color, it is best to wax them with a silicone wax. We usually wax over 500 hundred aluminum clad doors and windows every year. They come out looking brand new and better yet it's a nice yearly maintenance just like mahogany doors.


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## Laz (Nov 14, 2010)

Silicone and painters don't get along vary well!


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## daArch (Mar 15, 2008)

If my memory serves me well, I think it goes something like this - presuming you are talking about the unpainted alum, and this was only for the frame of tyhe storms,

And this is a few decades old before XIM or DTM's .

IF one tried to prepare the "raw" alum with aluminum primer and then apply whatever exterior paint you would choose, there would be enough failure to loose faith in the claims of the paint manufacturer.

BUT if some drunk hack couldn't paint a straight line if his hand was fastened to a rail and got whatever paint the hack uses on that raw aluminum frame, it would stay there as an eyesore forever.


two years ago, I needed to paint six alum shutters. They were black originally but had oxidized and were mostly white (south side exposure). I sanded them down to raw alum, primed with waterborne XIM Prime Start (free sample) and finished coat with (was it ) Moorguard home mixed Essex Green.

Those shutters are now on the north side and still looking good.


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## TJ Paint (Jun 18, 2009)

dtm or xim primer or something similar.


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## Seattlepainting (Jun 8, 2010)

I have never considered silicone wax. 

Darch.. That was pretty funny, with the drunk hack.


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## Rick the painter (Mar 30, 2009)

Seattlepainting said:


> Any Paint Talk Contractors ever paint Aluminum Clad windows?
> 
> What paint products are you guys using on these substrates.
> 
> We are using XIM and exterior grade paints.


Be careful with SW Industrial Latex Coatings with Crank-out style aluminum windows.Too sticky even after drying.


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