I'm looking to buy a boat, but none of the boats I've been looking at fit my tastes. I'm more of a classic solid color guy than yellow and purple flames guy...

How difficult / expensive is it to remove or paint over these? Looking in the 27-35ft range.

What should I be looking for in a boat I want to repaint?

Thanks.

If you are looking at boats that you will potentially paint look for boats with either vinyl or in gel graphics. Also boats that have an OEM finish. The toughest boats to paint are going to be boats in poor shape with non professionally applied finishes or even some mid nineties factory Imron jobs, both of those can be pretty thick and will need to be removed. It is easiest to shoot over original gel

Isn't it true that any cracks or crazing in gelcoat will also need to be repaired first? Otherwise, it will work its way through the new paint? I've read this on here before...

yes

True, all imperfections or damage needs to be properly repaired first but I think the threads author was asking about covering existing graphics or basically what one should look for when considering boats that he (or she ) will most likely be painting at some point.

Look for nice original gel or quality paint. You want to avoid hackie amature paint.

Thanks. What do you think about this boat's potential? http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/boa/2964126538.html

It's hard to tell but it looks like the graphics are painted on. I'm contacting the seller to find out.

I think I'd like to paint the hull solid dark navy blue or black, and remove the graphics from the rest (as well as replacing the blue and yellow parts of the upholstery)

Any idea what doing something like that would cost?

hard to tell from the pics but being a west coastie boat its a reasonable assumption that they are gelled graphics. My buddy has that exact same hull but in a twin, runs well. Complete re spray on a hull of that size would start in the ten thousand range and go up from there.

Yeah I think the graphics are gelled.

Wow, starting at $10K? Is most of that labor?

It would probably just be solid black or blue hull and white deck.

I think I'll end up keeping it as is for a season and then decide if it's worth it. I could stomach $5K, but 10 is getting pricey on a $37K boat...