A couple months ago my boat was tied up with a buddies and a drunk idiot flipped up the fender between the boats. Before I noticed what had happened my buddies boat left some pretty good scratches on mine, some down to the aluminum. I’ve done some research and on how to go about doing a spot repaint/repair on this (which primer to use for aluminum, how to attempt to blend with a blending agent, ect) and it seems that it will be a challenge. I had the paint matched at O'reily with the computerized paint matching device and the guy gave me a small bottle of acrylic enamel touch-up paint to see if it would match. I painted a small area and once dry the paint seemed to match very well. I know the paint on the boat is a single stage paint but I am unsure of what kind (I need to call the manufacturer Lund), I also have access to a set of nice paint guns to take on this project. My question for you guys is: Is this worth trying to repair or should I make an insurance claim, and have this done professionally. I have no experience painting but am willing to learn as I go. Besides some very very minor scratches the boat is in very good shape. It doesn’t have to be perfect as the boat is a fishing boat and not a show car. But the way it happened and the fact that the rest of the boat being in great shape makes me cringe every time I see it and makes me want to fix it.

Thanks for the help

So you've got an aluminum boat and they flipped you over to our plastic land here.... oh, well.... It's a toss up. Aluminum does usually require some special considerations as to prep. and finishing. Although the color/touch-up process seems straight forward that doesn't mean you are going to have good "wear surface" necessarily when done. Best advice?.... I think I would at least have it looked at by a pro boat repair shop or two and get some opinions on how "they" would fix it. That is going to tell you more about the process and the time/materials needed to give a good job. Trust me, if it bugs you now, possibly a poorly done job done by you is going to bug you a lot more.....