My son and I are about to begin the restoration of the old 35 foot Cigarette...BENIHANA.

A former owner has painted it all black. We want to return it back to the original color scheme as it was when it raced.

Should we strip the old paint off first?

If so should we use paint stripper?

or

Should we just paint over the existing paint with all new colors?

IMO it depends on how well they preped for the last paint. I have seen on a number of prep jobs, my boat included were you could easily strip the paint off with a razor (See picture below). If that is the case then I would want the paint off cuz it is like building a house on a crumbling foundation. If it was preped properly then I would just wet sand and paint.

I almost purchased that boat when it was out in Cali. If the guy had had the carbs and intakes I probably would have done it.

Jon

Here is the original paint scheme. The boat raced first as SPIRIT and then BENIHANA.

Also there is shot showing the paint around the original colors that were under the drives.

How many Benihana boats were there? I had a customer of mine tell me the other day that his cousin used to drive the old benihana race boat. I'll find out more info.

There was one Cigarette and at least three Bertrams and a couple of Cougar Cats.
And he rented a Cobra that broke the nose off in San Fran and almost killed him.

One thing to keep in mind is how many times has the boat been painted. Even if all the old paint jobs were well preped and the foundation is good the thickness of the paint can cause problems.

I think it depends on how nice you want the final project? How long your going to keep the boat? And how much time or money do you want to spend?

In the last picture the orange peel looks to be HORRIBLE. AT a minimum your want to sand that all off to start with a flat smooth base

I think we want the best quality finish we can get.....so I am leaning towards completely stripping it....so that brings up the next question...what is the best stripper to use on something like this?

We want to go right back to the original gel coat and then fine sand that for prep.

www.historicraceboats.com

Be careful with chemical strippers they can cause the gelcoat to swell and leave you a lumpy mess.

Someone suggested an "aircraft paint stripper"....anyone have any experience with that?

She goes by the name Mercede's

Very cool project - be sure to post lots of pics!