Boat Painting ?

[Staci Matheis]

OK..... I'm hoping that by next Spring I will be able to afford to go out and find myself a new Used boat...... What happens if I find a great boat at an exceptional price - but don't like the color.......



Can I repaint/gelcoat a boat?

Even just go to all one color like white?

What if I wanted to put in some simple highlights other than the factory pattern?

How difficult/costly would it be to do?

Is it a project that I could do all or in part myself?

Can it be done by anyone who has a paint booth?



Thanks!

me!

 

[Staci Matheis]

Also, along the same lines........



I've seen quite a few 19' boats with just 150 hp XR6's from when all boats were limited to that by Tournament rules......



How difficult is it to build a 150 up to a 200?



Thanks again!

me!

 

[Charlie Richardson]

Hey Scott, You might get away with painting the hull, but I would be afraid that rubbing against snags, rocks and boat docks would scratch through the paint revealing the underlying color. To reshoot with gelcoat would be ennormously expensive and almost impossible to get a really slick finish. Remember that the gelcoat is shot onto a waxed mold as the first layer in the boats construction and the mirror finish of the mold is what gives the gelcoat it's slick surface.

Now, making 200hp from a 150 ain't no walk in the park either. The biggest and most expensive obstacle is that the porting of the block is different and let me assure you that Bubba-Bob down at the local outboard emporium ain't got a clue. There have been numerous blocks trashed by unknowing folks with a porting tool. A job like that should be left to people like Land&Sea or other reputable high performance places. Beside the porting a 200 uses a different exhaust tuner and I believe a different block to tuner adapter. Not to mention changes in fuel delivery. By the time all of these changes have been made you will have almost as much invested in the conversion as a complete 200 would have cost. As you probably remember I run a 150efi on a 19'6" 896 and it perform pretty well. My boat was rigged this way to conform w/ BASS restrictions at the time and no doubt would be better served with a 200. If you can live with low 60s speed a 150 will do the job just fine, but if ya feel the need to bust the 70 mark get you a 200 to start with.

If you find any good info on the painting please let me know, cause I'm kinda interested in that myself..Cmack

 

[Staci Matheis]

Charlie -



Thanks for the reply!



Yeah, I seem to remember you saying that the gellcoat on your boat was not in top shape - and that's kind of what I had in mind. Hoped I could get a pretty good deal on an otherwise very sound boat. Then spend some time sanding and refinishing the hull.



I didn't realize that the mirror-like finish was produced by the mold - although I knew a dirty mold would give an unacceptable finish.



When repairs are done to a hull, how do they manage to re-do it "like new"?



me!