I have this aluminum boat that I will slowly be bringing back to life. It will mainly be used for fishing and possibly a little duck hunting.

It definately needs a fresh coat of paint, but I really dont want to deal with dings and scratches in the paint down the road. It would be easy to just touchup with a rattle can, but I dont want a middle of the mall looking boat if I can help it.

I know the flashy polished look will not be too good for the duck hunting part, but it will be used for fishing 95% of the time.

I am really leaning towards just stripping the original paint and through whatever process, leaving it as bare aluminum. The more I look at the bare/polished boats, the more badass they look.

Any suggestions or opinions on the looks, stripping/sealing and polishing process?

What I have now:

What I am leaning towards:

5 ...

Report Post

Posted by The Last Coco

On the water

Member since Mar 2009

6842 posts

Posted on 7/10/14 at 11:28 am to Polar Pop

I think if you sprayed on a camo pattern over the current paint, it would look fine. That's not a terrible base for the camo and most of it would get covered by browns/tans/blacks/other green by the end of it. And you could always roll the inside with a tan bed liner type material if you didn't want to paint it to match the rest.

Personally I would camo the outside, then add in a plywood floor that I could camo along with the seats and walls of the inside. And turn the entire front of the boat into a deck. I hate the whole bench seat look.

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by DownSouthDave

Beau, Bro, Baw

Member since Jan 2013

7391 posts

Posted on 7/10/14 at 11:30 am to Polar Pop

Personally, I would just paint the thing. It'll probably be a pain in the arse stripping all the paint. On top of that, i'm sure it's full of dings and scratches. Those will all show up if you strip it, while they will be hidden if you paint it. If you strip it, you have to spray it with acid to keep it looking new, just another thing to do. I'm not sure you would get the look of those shiny new boats, even if you were to strip it.

I think painted aluminum boats look pretty good, fwiw.

0 ...

Report Post

Posted by TheDrunkenTigah

Baton Rouge

Member since Aug 2011

17363 posts

Posted on 7/10/14 at 11:34 am to Polar Pop

I refinished this one for my dad last father's day. The best thing to use to strip off the old paint is acetone and a lot of elbow grease. Doesn't look like it'll be much of a concern for you, but the acetone is gonna take of anything, including any patch leak fixes that have accumulated over the years. If I were to do it again I wouldn't have knocked those off, cause it was a pain tracking down every little one again.

2 ...

Report Post

Posted by Hammertime

Will trade dowsing rod for titties

Member since Jan 2012

43030 posts

Posted on 7/10/14 at 11:39 am to Polar Pop

It will be a humongous hassle to get it to bare aluminum. I tried it once and gave up. Used aircraft stripper and one of those paint/rust stripping rubber wheels.

Just scuff it up, put a couple coats of self-etching primer, and paint with that camo spray stuff you can get at AutoZone or any hardware store

I put bedliner on my seats and rails, followed by tan camo on the seats. The tan kept it somewhat cool

You could also have it sandblasted and powder coated for a couple of hundred bucks.

Just don't worry about stripping it. You're getting into way more work than you think

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by raymondmercer