Re-painting the 1981 Nautique

Brian, The best way to handle the strips is to trace them now before you wet sand. Yes, they can be taped. (3M fine line tape)The lettering stencil can be made by a sign shop. The most popular system is a Gerbermask.

Tracing paper and pencil. After wet sanding, you can then tape it up on to the hull to use as sort of a template for the fine line tape. You also may be able to see the shadow of the strips and lettering. The tracing is just in case! If you take the tracing of the letters to a sign shop, they will scan it into the computer and clean up any rough edges.

Brian, I assume you ran across this thread, if not you may want ot take a look.

ski lime

Jay, A epoxy will not hold the gloss like a linear polyurethane. I don't recommend it. Did a professional tell you about the epoxy? Are you sure he isn't talking about a 2 part poly? If you must paint then the poly is the way to go. Last longer than gel? Absolutely not. It is still paint. Cheaper, yes!

Jay, I need to take a step backwards here! I somehow missed that you were only asking about the graphics and I'm rambling on about the whole boat!! I don't see the year of your boat but if it was paint from the factory then they used Rust-Oleum. It's still a tough option, but you can use the poly's as well. The nice thing about the Rust-Oleum is they still have the same colors. Stay away from the epoxy's as that group of paint was developed for chemical resistance and not decorative qualities. Cost's can be all over depending on things like what part of the country you are in and if you have a Gerber mask made or he has to mask by hand. I'll say on average you are looking at about $1500

I re-painted an 82 MODEL that I had. I used Omni AU paint from a local auto paint store. They supplied me with 2 primers, one to first adhere correctly to the gelcaot and the next for the paint to adhere correctly. It cost just under 300 for all the materials and I had a local sign shop do the decals for $80. Some misc. expense on tape etc. Whole thing was under 500 dollars to do and if I had to do it again tomorrow Id go the same way. I sold the boat about 3 years after I painted it and it still looked as good as it did the day I did it...

That ain't no '81. What font did the sign shop use on the decals? They look pretty close.

tiqueman97 wrote: It is an 81!!!

Definitely isnt a '81. Looks like a '82.

well you can think what you want but the front tells us it's not and if you measure the beam I bet it matches the specs for the 83-89 2001 hull.

Hull numbers dont lie.

At some point, the Hull ID convention changed. On modern boats, the last 2 digits are the model year. What you were probably looking at was the year of manufacture. Its common for a boat to be built in the previous calendar year (my '90 was built in 10/89), as production starts in July, I believe. I guarantee that your boat was a 1982 model year.

thats fine and I agree. However the engraved number on the top right of the transom ended in 81. There fore, according to everyting Ive been taught, the boat, as I know because I owned it, was registered as an 81. That all Im saying. If you want to say that the number on the back doesnt verify the year, well then Ive got an 08 Super sport i will sell you however its stamped 97 on the back...

tiqueman97 wrote: However the engraved number on the top right of the transom ended in 81. There fore, according to everyting Ive been taught, the boat, as I know because I owned it, was registered as an 81. That all Im saying. If you want to say that the number on the back doesnt verify the year, well then Ive got an 08 Super sport i will sell you however its stamped 97 on the back...

You were taught right... sort of. Read my post above. The Hull ID number convention was changed in 1984 according to this article.

The 81 youre referring to would have been the certification date of the 2001 hull. The hull ran from 1982-1989, so it would have been certified in '81. Its likely that all 82-83 2001's have HIN's ending in "81". Your registration was simply wrong (which is not uncommon).

Youre correct in that from 1984 on, the last 2 digits indicate the model year.

well and now lets not forget that just because it was manufactured in 81 doesn't mean that is was sold as a 81 or in 81 for that matter.

Think about this compare it to cars my truck was built in sept of 2003 but it's a 2004 so does that mean it should be registered as a 2003 no and if I would have bought it in 2005 does it mean that it should be regestered as a 2005 no.

And it's common knowledge if you want to start selling a new model for the next year you have to build them before that years starts right? otherwise you have none or very little stock to sell.

ok everyone scroll up and check out my first comment on this post. Does that make everyone happier now???????????? Jesus jumped up rice you guys kill me....