Since this is a useful and well-named thread, let me yammer on a bit about my specific experiences.
( to supplement
http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/entry.php?119-Pedestal-Rebuild and -- for painting --
http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/entry.php?111-Paint-Boom-Revise-Outhaul )
The pedestal on what is now Bruce's boat, the 32-3
Makana, needed deep re-welding after it broke off Hawaii. It was a redesign, using a flat base plate. Before departure I had prepped and painted with Brightside. Beautiful finish.
The welder on Kauai ground all that paint off. So there I was at midnight in the rain with a bare pedestal ready to be reinstalled. How to paint it? The welder recommended a hardware-store aerosol that "contains its own primer". Hot dog! I spray-painted this shiny aluminum pedestal, barefoot, in a 20-knot harbor wind while hiding behind garbage cans at Nawiliwili. I installed it at dawn while it was still wet. So were my spray-painted tootsies, which stayed white for two more days.
Now
there's a repaint job not entirely what you might call professional. You can ask Bruce how it looks four years later, unless he has refinished it. it still looked good to me.
When I got the E38 I took the pedestal out for inspection and decided to have a welder re-weld the connection of tube to base. Paranoia? Yes, and also nitwit engineering analysis. The original design of the YS pedestal base, which is fluted, actually places very little strain on any welds. I now believe rewelding an original pedestal is unnecessary. And it created issues for the welder, because the tube/base union was slightly corroded and full of salt, which is typical of yacht welds exposed to weather. He made a mess of the job. What I got back for $250 looked more like a lightning strike than a NASA-inspected joint on the space shuttle.
However, I rebuilt the re-welded joint with filler and got it looking original again. This time I rolled and tipped with Brightside after a few primer coats of Interlux Pre-Kote, which fills scratch and sanding marks.
It looked spectacular! Interlux Brightside is a very shiny product.
I sailed that pedestal 5,000 miles to Oahu and back in 2017 and a few months ago noticed a few chips at the base. I sanded the base in place, applied two new coats of Brightside up only to the tube joint, and had a perfect pedestal again in about an hour.
x
Conclusion: Pedestals get stepped on, nicked and dinged. Aluminum is soft. Grand schemes such as powder coating, with all that entails, are probably not worth it. Paint the thing. Shiny and smooth is all we need. Touch-ups are easy.