- by Jay Daniells
- Case Study, Past Projects - Completed, Restorations
Updated 7/09/22: I have now finally finished editing a video about my Pride Cheetah ski boat refurb/restoration and re-paint project. I took photos right the way through the project. I have now assembled them into a slideshow video that goes for under 3 minutes (nice and quick to watch). Here is the video:
I have always wanted a ski boat…. and I have always wanted to restore one!
When I spotted this boat for sale in 2019 I was convinced I needed to buy it. I got it at the right price and then set about starting to refurb it. I knew it needed a repaint but I had never repainted a boat before. I’d barely used a spray gun and didn’t own one, nor did I own a spray compressor. I ended up buying the tools I needed (including the Spray Guns and the Compressor) and fully repainting it.
The below blog post mentions some of what was involved and some of the photos during the restore.

After much research on YouTube, forums, Facebook Closed Groups, chatting with my local Paint Shops, tips from a Spray Painter mate of mine and tips from my Dad (who had repainted a Tinnie boat and vehicle body parts when he was younger) I plucked up the confidence to repaint the boat. I had to buy a Spray Gun (2 of them actually) and also a decent Compressor to do the job, and a lot of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) gear.
Side note: Many years ago (when I was 20) I spent 15 months working as a junior signwriter (apprentice) for some really good tradesmen. They taught me a LOT about safety, chemicals, surface preparation, masking, sanding and painting (with a brush and airbrush). All this was going to come in very handy during this project.
Myself and a few helpers started working on this boat project in our spare time back in late 2019. We finished repainting it in January 2021.
If you have spray painted a car or boat before you would be well aware that it’s 90% prep work. The removing of the old decals, removing the windscreen, sanding the old Gelcoat, puttying up all the rock marks, rock dints, scratches and other blemishes with 2 pack bog and then EVEN MORE sanding to get the boat smooth took quite some time and effort!
Painting each coat, waiting for it to dry, sanding, prepping and then painting the next coat of paint took quite some time too. All up we applied 2 full coats of undercoat and 2 full coats of top-coat (the colour).
I made a timber stand so we could take the boat off the trailer so I could repaint the hull. We then sanded it and prepped it. I then crawled in under the boat to paint the hull.

I repainted the boat with 2 Pack Norglass Polyurethane marine paint. It is durable and will last many years.
We also refurbed the trailer and repainted it black. We removed the rust before prepping it for repaint. We also applied a rust treatment. I also rebuilt the leaf springs including new bolts. I also had to do some welding repairs. Basically, the entire trailer was fully reconditioned and all bolts were replaced.

I also have a blog article about this boat project on my Green Valley Digital website. Check it out here.
Even the steering wheel got a refurb.


There were many jobs that had to be done during the project. Some of them included:
- Replacing the outboard engine gearbox.
- Battery replacement
- Cleaning the rub-rail to get it white (use Acetone to do this — it works really well)
- I repainted the seats using Vinyl Spray Paint
- Some basic wiring jobs
- Lots of other little jobs
- New stickers/ decals (not yet added)
The Cowl still needs to be repainted. I will do that soon.
It was a fun project and we all learned a LOT!
Below are some photos I took during the project. I’ll add others to this blog post soon.











