Panels--repaint or replace?

[guy48065]

My panels are an ugly orange and I'm eager to change that. I've seen old pontoons with painted panels with flaking paint. I sure don't want that but I don't know if they're that hard to paint or the crummy-looking ones weren't prepped properly.
PontoonStuff has rolls of new aluminum for $179. This makes more sense but then I noticed it's thinner (.015) than house siding (.019 & .024) & much more expensive.

And then there's other materials like PVC rolls is similar thicknesses.

Can anyone offer some experience?

[HandymanHerb]

Paint them or have them painted here is the before and after on mine, graphics are from PontoonStuff.com and a little work on the rails with some steel wool does wonders too, all it takes is a little work and time.

[guy48065]

Looks great! So did you paint them, have them painted...? I need details. Remove the skins or paint in place? Powdercoat, rattle can, sprayer?

Honestly the white PVC roll is gaining traction in my mind. Stuff for siding & trim use should be UV resistant, color-through, easy to cut & drill. Less buzzy than my aluminum panels. Not sure how they'd hold up to the flex. I might be wise to drill the rivet holes a few thou over to prevent stress cracks at the rivets & use large-head rivets like the OEM did.

[blackberg]

I put vinyl onmine,
The same sticker material, and then put the cut graphics on top.

Stripped the old graphics and sanded before hand

-bb

[oldcoot]

I'm curious about this also....ours is slightly wrinkled in spots from previous owners and decals coming off....our skin is on the inside of the fence...maybe reskin outside the fence??????

[Bamaman]

Looks really nice, and look at those polished pontoons.

Your hard work has paid off.

[guy48065]

I put vinyl onmine,
The same sticker material, and then put the cut graphics on top.

Stripped the old graphics and sanded before hand

-bb

Do you mean the adhesive-backed shelf liner stuff? Cut & stick? How did you get it between the railings without wrinkles? I can't even cover a flat shelf without that stuff grabbing itself or trapping air pockets...

[HandymanHerb]

We stripped our to metal, used body hammers and dollies to bang out most of the dents and then skimmed with body filler, and then put on five coats of primmer filler on, sanding the first two down to metal again to fill low spots then lighter sanding the next three coats.

I hit Harbor Freight and picked up an HVLP sprayer







We even raised the back fence 10 inches to put a sun deck with storage under on the rear where the fishing seats use to be




Our boat guy gave us a great price on final painting as he was painting another boat the same color we wanted, but there is always a reason you get a cheap price, I wish I sprayed them myself or took them some where else and paid a little more to get it done better, it turned out good but could have been better easy with all the primmer and prep work I did.

Now if you can't paint, you can still save money as the prep work is the biggest part, take the fences off and go visit some paint shops to get prices and ask what you can do to make it cheaper, like having them stripped and sanded

[blackberg]

I put vinyl onmine,
The same sticker material, and then put the cut graphics on top.

Stripped the old graphics and sanded before hand

-bb

Do you mean the adhesive-backed shelf liner stuff? Cut & stick? How did you get it between the railings without wrinkles? I can't even cover a flat shelf without that stuff grabbing itself or trapping air pockets...

Its the stuff used for vinyl cutters to make signs.

It comes in 24" and 12" wide rolls usually.

Some sections we removed the panels off the rails,(the straight sides), others we did them in place with the rails off the boat. then we put the graphics on top, also made out of vinyl.

The pic attached is the front door, that light gray vinyl for that panel was done off the rail since we extended the door all the way to the bottom.
-bb

[ToonGuy]

Re-skinning is easy, but time consuming. Still not as time consuming as stripping/prepping/painting. DO NOT use replacement PVC/Vinyl roll. Unless you find a way to fasten so it "floats" and still looks nice, it will warp and wrinkle in the heat. It expands and contracts at a different rate then the rail frame, and it looks like crap. Trust me I know from experience...

[HandymanHerb]

Vinyl does the opposite of metal, it grows in the cold and shrinks when hot, we checked on getting ours wrapped but it was cheaper to paint by half or more

[guy48065]

I'm bummed that the rolls at PontoonStuff are $180 and the thicker white aluminum sold for siding trim is $65--but only painted on one side.

Maybe it's best to remove my panels (which are thick and have a pebble finish) and repaint them. I think that would be cheapest and might even be easiest since all the rivet holes are already there. There are no dents, cracks, etc.

If I do this I assume I would need to scuff-sand, prime, paint. Planning to go with ordinary white. What paint would you guys recommend? Should I use ordinary enamel from the hardware store (like Rustoleum) or automotive paint (lacquer, urethane..?). I have an HVLP conversion gun like Herb as well as a regular spray and a trim gun. Not that I'm any good at using them... I'm sure however it turns out will be worlds better than orange I have now.

I'm planning a green/white Spartan theme, BTW.

[ToonGuy]

I'm planning a green/white Spartan theme, BTW.

Never mind, scrap the whole idea asap