Painting a runabout!!

I've got a 1974 Glastron 16 ft on a trailer totally stripped and ready for paint.I need to do the bottom patching and sanding, which needs new bottom paint. But the top is already sanded and ready to go, with just a few patches I need to put on. Is this something I can attempt myself or is it worth having the local boatyard do it. How much should I expect to
pay for such? If I do it myself, what's the best way to lift the boat away
from the trailer? I'm in the Houston, texas area and primarily use the boat in
lakes. I welcome any suggestions. Also if anyone knows where I can find the metal flake paint for the top portion of the boat, that would be helpful too. And any places I can get out of date parts, like a windshield, gauges, etc. Thanks,

J. Young

 

Have a look at www.classicglastron.com/gl-resource-list.html under "Gelcoat"
I think you will find many good contacts here.

 

I am already a member of that site, I really just need someone with experience show me the ins and outs. Or give me some detail info. I have found a bunch of websites showing me how to do it. But those are all for like yacths. I was planning on building a platform to turn my boat upside down on to paint the bottom, that seems to be the most reasonable way. What do ya think??? Anybody with info please help!!

 

First, matching metal flake paint is almost impossible so you'll probably have to paint all of the area of the boat that is metal flake.

Bottoms are usually painted leaving the area that supports the boat unpainted letting the boat dry and then moving the supports. However with a little thought and ingenuity you could probably rig some sort of frame to rotate the boat upside down to paint the bottom. I've seen this done with some pretty big boats.

As for whether you can do this yourself or not depends on what skills you have and the paint system you pick. If it's out of the can and brush on, sure you can do it. If it requires mixing and spraying you may need to get a pro to do it because they have the equipment to do the work, the protective gear you need and they also know how to do it without trashing the environment. Look at what is available and the difficulty of applying it, then decide whether or not to do it yourself.

 

I was planning on painting all of the metal flake area. Can that kind of paint be rolled on? As for bottom painting I just found out that it would be better just to patch the one spots that need it, and leave the rest alone!! Anybody know where to get this metal flake paint?