Scratches on outside of the boat
 

Hello, just making my first post since I am a new Mariah member. I have had my 95 Mariah 180 talari since 1995. My parents were the first owners lol but the boat has been passed down To me recently. I love this boat very much and it runs exceptionally well. I have never been more impressed with a boat especially since this boat is over 15 years old. Still looks great and engine is tip top. There are scratches on the boat from an unfavorable brother of mine. He does not have pride like I do about boating or in general, except for himself. My boat has the dark green coat and I love the color but the stripe stickers are rubbed bad and need to know what i can do for the scratches on the side and what to do for the stripe stickers. I have not tried to buff the scratches in fear of messing up the coating more. I have heard of rejell coating the boat but i do not think it will look the way it did brand new. Need suggestions on what to do for my precious Mariah

Re: Scratches on outside of the boat
 

The Search function is always helpful on this site. Have a look thru our "How To's" for gel coat repairs and look at this "Sticky" regarding graphics.

Re: Scratches on outside of the boat
 

I have gotten graphics from Mike and they are awesome!! Shoot him your hull ID # and he will see if he has your original graphics still :)
Can you post pics of the damage?

Larry

Re: Scratches on outside of the boat
 

Just a thought: on my first Mariah I got some tracing paper and put it against the old graphic on the boat and with a soft lead pencil duplicated it onto the paper. I took it to a vinyl graphic business and they re-created them for me. Not expensive and worked perfectly. On my present Mariah, I had just some small cosmetic spots I wanted to fix, so I got some matching vinyl from a graphics place (their scraps and free to me) and with an exacto blade and a metal ruler carefully cut of the damaged area and spliced in the new, coating the ends with clear nail polish. (don't tell my wife that I borrowed hers). You'd have to look real close to even tell I made repairs. Hope this is helpful.

deyshman

Re: Scratches on outside of the boat
 

I just made a how to on how to fix gel coat cracks.(check the How To section) The end of my "how to" explains the sanding procedure to smooth and buff the hull. Basically you have 2 choices:

1. Sand down current scratches and then buff (possibly creating a crater in hull if scratches are deep)
2. Filling holes with Gel Coat/Cabosil and then proceeding with sanding/buffing

Re: Scratches on outside of the boat
 

On a 180 Talari, your graphics are probably white.

I've taken masking tape and white enamel and filled in the scratches with paint. It's a pretty cheap repair!!