TOPIC: My Free 1973 Crestliner 17'

There are tons of great deals on older boats. The original owner of this boat had to go to assisted living. He purchased it Sept 1972. It was used regularly around the Chesapeake Bay washed/flushed and kept in the garage. When his kids tried to take it out the overheat alarm went off after a few minutes (2010 impeller) and some of the gelcoat is chunking off on the Port side (looks like some settled in the bottom corner of the mold).
So $150 in water pump kits and some Seafoam and the Merc 115&9.9 are running like new. I've had it out a few times and it's an amazing package. The original owner set it up perfectly.
Next on my list is the hull. I'll probably be pulling the motors and flip the hull around December. I'll have to peel the loose gelcoat and fair everything up then reshoot the hull below the rail. I have been considering the many options I have. My original plan was to peel and fair the gelcoat probably with an epoxy product like Marine Tex then shoot the hull with a Urethane bed liner product sprayed smooth and glossy. Probably $1,500 all said and done. I figured this would be strong and durable and last longer than I will. After talking to some people with experience they say to just fair it up with thickened gel coat and spray a coat of wax enhanced gel coat to keep everything consistent and repairable. It would be considerably cheaper but potentially way more work and still subject to further peeling, chipping and cracking which I believe the urethane would contain fully. If I go with the bed liner I would shoot the topside as well with texture where desired.
My other connundrum is restore the original factory paint scheme or go with a sand color and grass based sides and top so all I would need is a few grass mats to cover goose season with my mini island. So what does everyone think? My friend really likes the Red, White and Blue paint now but I was thinking that if I shoot a White base a full blown American Flag graphic for the sides. What does the collective wisdom think?
Crap all of my pics are too large to post here and I can barely manage posting when everything does work!!!

Resize your photos in microsoft paint. Anything under 1000 pixels will post.

FYI, we increased the upload size to 2048KB. Didn't mean to hijack this thread. Onward!

kensikora wrote: FYI, we increased the upload size to 2048KB. Didn't mean to hijack this thread. Onward!

My phone has a 48 megapixel. I've had 5 meg pictures.