re: Painting vs. Polishing aluminum boat

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