My dinghy was pretty inexpensive, but it was really rough. Thick glass seams on the chines and big blobs of resin were all over the outside. The bright wood finish also clashed with my color scheme. So I spent the past couple of weekends making it (somewhat) beautiful. First I ground down the worst of the high points and then re-sealed the surface with epoxy. Then I troweled on lots of fairing filler, sanded it off, and did it again. One more epoxy seal, then a couple coats of primer, then three coats of the same two-part polyurethane paint I used on the Coot. I added some rub strips on the bottom to protect my new paint and some ‘Gunnel-Guard’ padding all around the gunwales so the dinghy won’t ding up the hull. I hauled it down to the boat today. I think it looks really nice, and they look like they belong together now.
Lots and lots of filler!
Primer:
Installing the rub strips. The skeg has a stainless steel strip because it gets a lot of wear:
This shows the gunnel-guard installed:
At home on the stern:
I wrote this entry on the iPad using the WordPress app, so the formatting is a little weird. Not as difficult to do as I expected, though.
Boatbuilding Blog 
Nice job! The paint looks great. I looked around for your paint reference “the same 2 part polyurethane paint used on the Coot” but could not find. Was that 2 part poly paint, Interlux?
Comment by Dave — April 25, 2011 @ 6:36 pm
Yep: INTERLUX PERFECTION CREAM. Awesome stuff, and very hard once it’s cured a few weeks. I put it on with little foam rollers and tipped it with a foam brush. Here’s all the paint details: https://boatbuild.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/paint/
Comment by tomlarkin — April 26, 2011 @ 10:59 am
I am getting ready to start a build in two weeks (mid June 2011). It is something that I have always wanted to do. I am documenting my build on my boat classifieds site. I have the intro video up now. I would love some input as the project goes on.
Video: build a boat
Comment by Sean — June 1, 2011 @ 5:04 am
Really you done a superior job, I did not read such type of polishing tips just before. The dinghy is looking great.
Comment by remove scratches — April 17, 2012 @ 12:27 pm