Thanks for all the suggestions, now I'm really confused.......

DD13, want to paint the boat, but I want to use it for awhile first. It's been down since last New Year's Day.

Are you planning to put on any kind of a swim platform? There's an '89 Palm Beach 311 that hangs out in the the same bay in Lake St Clair that I do. He got rid of his Silent Thunder and put one of those tubular frame platforms on his. He painted it teal to match the boat and it looks great.

Russ, teal sucks, once you go black, you'll never go back!

I have a strong feeling that's what I'm going to end up doing. Deb is really bit(hing about me taking the swim platform off, although she has told me on at least five occasions now she's never setting foot on the boat again.

Depending on the next month or two, (relationship wise) I might relent and put the tube platform on to try to appease her. And there are times when it's handy, like tying off at docks, etc. I just like the look of the clean transom.

At the moment I'm leaning on grinding the striping off right at the corner, leaving it white, and then, if I have to, put the tubed platform on.

Another thing I noticed what how much the rest of the felcoat has "aged" in color. The new transom is much whiter than the rest of the boat so I'm going to have to "blend" it somehow until next year when the boat will get painted.

time for a good compound and wax

I'm surprised you beat Cuda on that one.

The idea came to me about maybe grinding the stripes off on the side just before the transom. Starting with the top small teal stripe maybe just before the bilge pump hole and then following an angle towards the rear as I take out the rest of the stripes, kind of a "reverse" angle than what the "norm" is for Formula. So as you looked at it from the side from top to bottom it would angle backwards, with the longest stripe being at the bottom. What do you guys think that might look light. I just kind of thought it wouldn't look so "blunt" as just stopping it at the corner of the transom.

I always thought soot was the result of blower motors or motors that were running way too rich. Is this wrong???? I never had soot problems with my 242 which was a clean transom running twin small blocks.

!....

I've pretty much made up my mind about keeping the transom white. (basically I don't want to get into yet another major project like painting).

I think the new tips and tie bar would look good against a high gloss white.

I can sleep easy now!