The client recently contacted me to re-letter his boat — re-doing the hand painted boat lettering that was originally done over 10 years ago by a very capable sign painter. I think the’ve gotten some good value… but, time to re-do it.

The boat is in the water in the Seaworld San Diego marina. The location is a little tricky because it’s open to Mission Bay in San Diego. This boat is on the end, right where all waves and wakes from boats arrive first!

I always try to include the before photo in these blog posts — below is a photo of the 10 plus year old job. The surface is fiberglass, and I was fortunate to have a 5 foot wide swim platform to work from.

Sometimes boat lettering projects require the painter to work from a separate dingy or other platform not connected to the boat. That becomes a serious challenge when both start rocking with the waves … in different directions!

The work began with surface prep. The fiberglass surface receives paint best when it’s been scratched up a bit — so here, a little 220 grit. Video below…

The steps involved after the surface prep were to paint the black lettering, paint the gray shade, and finally paint the gold inline. Below is the final result…

Finally… I enjoyed the day so much I took a video at the end. As I said at the beginning of this blog post, the location at the Seaworld San Diego marina is pretty open to every wave and wake coming off the San Diego Mission Bay. Ready for more, I say!

You might be thinking about getting this kind of project done, Do you know where to start? I can tell you - contact me, Paul Borne (president of Big City Signs) to find out more.

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