I am going to paint the top half of the boat. The bottom half is painted so figured I would do the same on top as well. I was trying to do this build on a limited budget so paint would be the cheapest way to go. Plus I never gel coated anything but I can spray paint really nice so be easy for my DYI build. I have some haze gray coming in soon along with some more black paint to touch up the bottom of the boat since they only painted the sides and the bottom is still a red color.