I need some help: restoring a ski nautique boat.

[Andrew McBride]

Well yesterday My brother and I bought a Ski nautique boat. The shell of the boat is in almost perfect shape. no cracks just minor blemishes. The boat needs to be repainted. A couple guys I was asking could not come up with a good way of painting a boat. My question is: How do guys paint the underside of a boat? 1 guy mentioned taking straps, but that wouldnt work because you would have these 2 places with no paint!! I was thinking that you could pull the outdrive off and build something to hook on the rear of the boat. But how would you hook on the front to sand it and paint it?! Need some advice!

I have been looking for some websites on how to do something like this, but I honestly don't know.

Thanks, Andrew

[RobM]

how big is the boat.. are you doing a bottom coat to prevent alge growth? or are you painting it for looks....

[Andrew McBride]

I am not sure the exact length: 17-18 foot I believe. We are re-painting the boat for looks. The car will either be on a trailer or in use. It probably would never set over a couple days in the water.

Andrew

[Bill Howell]

Andrew,
A local shop I know here has a swingset type hoist they use to pull the boat up with. Since you are talking about a inboard here, you could use some type of hoist that way(hook to engine and use that to lift entire rear of boat). Then if the front hook is secure, use it for lifting front. After painting, place a couple saw horses underneath for added security. Other option would be pull driveline and flip upside down.

[Andrew McBride]

that makes sense

I am going to pull the engine out and rebuild the 351 windsor. pretty much I am going to pull every piece off the boat-interior, windshield, engine, misc. trim. I have a 4,000 pound hoist in my shop mounted from 12" Bridge I beams. I believe that if I pulled the engine and mounted a bracket to the location of where the engine brackets are it would work. Or we could leave the engine in.
My only question would be weight distribution in lifting in that area. I believe it would be fairly even. the engine is in the middle. I believe we could get another hoist on the front or rear to even the weight out. hmm...this won't be that easy but I believe we can pull it off with a little engineering.

[Gonzostyle]

Andrew, what year Natique is it? Are you painting the bottom up to the rub rail, or just the very bottom? Are you going to pull the motor/outdrive to paint? Are you pulling the interior?

My suggestion is to at least pull the interior out of it, then use a few boards that will fit up into the gunnel yet protrude low enough that you can use a couple of steel beams or 4x4's as cross beams between the two sides. Then hoist from the cross beams.

-Jeremie

[Andrew McBride]

1983 Nautique. I am going to paint the entire boat with a white base and then a blue or orange 2 tone on the sides. The whole boat will be shot white.

We are going to sorta add a little pro-touring style by updating the whole boat with new paint scheme, interior, ect.

I am wanting to do something like this:

[Bill Howell]

We are going to sorta add a little pro-touring style by updating the whole boat with new paint scheme, interior, ect.


OMG, this will no doubt open a new can of worms :lmao: We can not agree what a P-T car is and now you are building a P-T boat? What kind of suspension, will it have a LSx, what size wheels? :lmao: :lmao:

I know :getout:

[Gonzostyle]

I imagine the specs will go something like this (my boat):

89 MC barefoot 190, 454, velvet drive, 3 blade, 13th floor tower (bright polished alum), fat sack, ....

pro-boating......

I need baer brakes for my trailer......

-Jeremie

[Andrew McBride]

lol

well call it what you will. I kinda have always thought if you restore something to make it perform and look better than it's original state from the assembly line you have created something with a PT style-well sorta. I hope this doesn't start one of those bitching arguments! I will refine my comment and just say we are bringing the old beater up to date and giving it a new life!