Used Boat Oxidation

Looking at some used Nautiques in the 1991-1995 range. Literally every single one---whether they say garage kept, stored inside, always covered, whatever---has had the gelcoat look "faded" with a white, lighter area in the darker colors. I'll try to find a good photo of it to post later. In the ads, most of the boats look great with deep rich coloring. In person, nope.

Can that be fixed without a full paint job? One boat they had replaced the "Ski Nautique" sticker but I could still see where the other sticker was before. Can that ever come out? It's a nice boat otherwise.

Well you are talking about 20+ year old boats. Correct Crafts are not painted and like Chris says can be brought back. They will never look like new,my 95 faintly shows where the original dealers decal was and if the lighting is right and you know where to look you can see where the original registration numbers were. And like Chris also says with some care at placing the new side decals you would never notice the ghosting. A good sand and buff combined with a water line cover would help too.

8122pbrainard wrote: SteveHookEm wrote: Can that be fixed without a full paint job? . Steve, Chris states the proper method. Fiberglass hulls are not painted just to remove oxidation. Go to the FAQ thread in this section. You will find answers to 99% of your questions. There are several threads on wet sanding and buffing. Why are you looking at Correct Crafts? A Bayliner is all you need for tubing. CC's are designed as ski boats.

Hilarious. Really. Ha.

Hey guys, how about we welcome the new guy and lay off him a bit. Good grief.

Sorry for my well-intentioned but impatient friends. Welcome to Correct Craft Fan! We are a bit passionate, but honestly our bark is worse than our bite.

The FAQ mentioned is in the "Boat Maintenance" section. Go there and you can see a lot of information about our boats. In the FAQ and other places in CCF there are quite a few threads about bringing the color back to our boats.

They are not painted. The material covering the fiberglass is call Gelcoat. From Wikipedia: "Gelcoat is a material used to provide a high-quality finish on the visible surface of a fibre-reinforced composite material. The most common gelcoats are based on epoxy or unsaturated polyester resin chemistry. Gelcoats are modified resins which are applied to moulds in the liquid state."

The material is very durable, waterproof, and when new or polished has a great shine. You can even paint in new Gelcoat to fill in chips and get it to look as good as new. When the material is faded you simply need to sand or buff down a very, very small amount to bring back the shine. Again - go check out the FAQ.

Also - I notice that you are looking at 1991 - 1995 boats. There is a big difference from 1993 and on - the construction of the boat changed dramatically in that Correct Craft changed from wood stringers (core structure of the boat) to composite. A small amount of time here will show you that there are many owners of pre-1993 boats who have had to cut out their floors, cut out all the foam, fabricate new stringers, glass them in and put in a new floor (I'm generalizing). Anyhow, it is a big job that you can completely avoid if you narrow your search to 1993-1995 boats. Just something for you to consider.

Hope that all helps!

Thanks for the info and welcome. Yes, getting back into this I've seen some gorgeous older boats and some really horrible older boats. I had forgotten about the 1993 change over. And it's disappointing because my favorite boat I've ever owned was a 1988 Ski Nautique. I had friends in the 90's with composite stringer boats (a Mastercraft if I remember correctly) and I never felt like the ride was anything close to my boat with the wooden stringers. It seemed different and just better to me.

But not knowing the history of some of these boats, even the ones that look good may have had water sitting and rotting out those stringers and if not now, someday. I don't want to deal with that. So, 1993 and newer it is. I'm looking at a nice 1995 Sport Nautique. I'll post if I get her.

Well 20-25 years for any motor craft would be considered old by most. At least as they are compared with current models. Technology has advanced so much in that timeframe. That said, the lines seem cleaner and the simplicity can mean less that will break down.

Some of the new models are hideous. There, I said it. Haha

Here's a crop from a photo of a 1995 Sport Nautique that I am considering. Compression is perfect and overall, it's a nice looking boat for 20 years old. The owner has all maintenance records. I'm seeing the boat in person and driving it later this week.

See the picture for questions:

What is the "gauge" on the transom?
Can the rubber in the rub rail be easily replaced (it's pink!)?
I see many boats that have "blurring" of color between two gel colors. I thought that the colors were all in the gel coat? This seems to be different. Since I haven't seen the boat in person, what would cause the small stripes to look worn and can this be fixed?

Thanks again!

Stereo Remote on transom, the rub rail can be replaced, you could use rope or there are some colored inserts available thru McMaster Carr or Grainger with several color options, not too pricey, under $100 IIRC. Do a bit of searching here for info on the colored inserts, may have been KR0undy who posted good info on that. The small stripe is pin stripping tape, pretty cheap and easy to replace.

I really don't want a color for the rub rail. Black would be fine. I can get it at Nautiqueparts.com and it's for this boat. I would think it would fit better and not be loose.

Cool to have a radio remote. I've never had that before. Can't tell you how many time I wished I had while sitting back there. Nice to know.

So the color of the boat is white, black and teal in the gel coat. The stripes between the colors is just a pin stripe over the top? I don't remember that on my last Nautique. Wouldn't you feel the tape raised on top? If I have the entire boat wet sanded to bring back the color, I'm assuming that the process would remove any stripe tape on there and it would need to be replaced. Am I thinking correctly?

gun-driver wrote: This is how they look without graphics and pinstripe This is complete

Awesome! Great photos. So the red and thin black is vinyl striping? Do you clear coat over it? I'm going to take the boat to a local gel coat restoration company (http://www.nwfiberglass.com/) and have them bring the color back and replace the striping and add the "Sport Nautique" sticker and new Nautique stickers. Hoping to make her look new again!

Here's the boat full photo.

Here was mine being done

Here it is right after it was done 2 years ago and a partial from a few days ago. I bought the boat from N3 Boatworks,a Nautique dealer in Indy and a site supporter. They did the work,supplied and installed the decals etc. They also put the black rub rail insert on replacing the faded red one

KRoundy wrote: Did you buy that Sport?!?! If so, now we can REALLY welcome you to the club!

Still looking. Most likely. We're meeting at the lake to drive it tomorrow.

Check with Zach at N3. He is usually on here but I'd bet he's busy in prime boating season

Orlando76 wrote: Nautique parts.com has em, I just bought em.

I see the one at Nautiqueparts.com. It has "by Correct Craft..." below. The boat I am considering doesn't have that text below "Nautiques". That's fine as long as the text Nautiques matches the old exactly in place. It will likely have a shadow below when I remove the old letters.