I would soon like to get to work on prepping the boat for new paint, but before I do, I have some questions about the condition of the hull. I am currently taking a 2 hour a day class at a Tech school in Autobody, and I was told I can bring in my boat to work on, if I wanted to. The boat has Imron paint, by the way.


1. Can I use a compressed air DA to sand the hull down? What grits do I need?
2. For the minor scratches, can those be sanded out, or do they need to be filled?
3. For bigger, deeper scratches, should I grind it down, then fill it?
4. Would autobody bondo be OK for minor imperfections, and fiberglass + bondo for more serious damage? (I used bondo on small parts of my Mini Hawk, it worked pretty well!)

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Thank You!

Are all those stripes paint or vinyl?

I beleive its paint.

Dave is the man, he'll give the whole lowdown. But at least glass any cracks, and dont use auto bondo, 3m makes a marine filler.

Did you get the boat up and running yet? I would not spend time money and resources on the outer cosmetics until I knew if the boat was going to run and pan out.

(lol . . . . love that new smiley)


Sam its going to be much much easier to just shoot the sides of the boat rather then try and do individual repairs. I dont have time at the moment but i will put up a punch list later on the process for your boat. You will need to aggressively remove whats there but its not to bad of a project. Actually doing just the sides is a great starter type do it yourself thing that should fit in nicely with learning materials and technique.


I went from this to this in four days. Not near perfect but showed real well, looked great from the dock. Rookie is right on do the mechanicals first then cosmetics. I drove this boat for one season shaking it down before i even thought about paint. Did power/interior/drives the winter i got it, drove it for most of the season and then did the paint one week that late summer. Actually i re shot the grey but otherwise ran it as it. I didnt put to much thought into the stripes, i was originally just gonna go all white. Ended up just tossing these on at the last second. Kinda weak but screw it, it woke it up a bit.

Thank you, I appreciate it! Beautiful Chris Craft you have by the way!

just don't get too fussy with every little flaw. the sides of the boat need to pass the 20-20 test. 20 feet away at 20 mph it needs to look good. people don't walk up and inspect it with a magnifying glass.

I guess that would be one opinion

I agree. Get it running well enough that you can cruise all weekend without worrying about it stranding you, then start to clean it up cosmetically.

I know that everyone takes pride in how their boat looks, I am guilty of that also, but there is more to a boat than just the appearance. I would rather be boating than sitting in the driveway looking at a nice shiny hull.