If you happen to be cruising on the Lake of the Ozarks this season and spy something tall and sparkly on the horizon, chances are good it will be a 2009 Fountain 38’ Express Cruiser powered by MerCruiser 496 HO engines and owned by Bob and Pat Engel of Omaha, Neb. The Engels have a lakeside condominium, and during the summer they, as well as their son Chad and his wife, Kari—who own a 2007 Fountain 42 Lightning—log a lot of time on the Central Missouri waterway.
The metal flake gelcoat work on this 48-foot Fountain Express Cruiser is a few weeks away from completion.
That sparkle, especially when the sun hits the 38-footer in just the right way, will come courtesy of metal flake gelcoat—that’s right, metal flake gelcoat on an eight-year-old express cruiser—applied by Chad Engel and an employee at Custom Image Auto Body, his business in Omaha. At the end of last season, Engel and his father decided that the Fountain, having started its life on the water in Florida before the senor Engel purchased it in 2014, could use some sprucing up.
“The top of the boat was oxidized really badly,” said Chad. “I tried to polish it out, wet-sanded it, buffed it out, but nothing seemed to get it back to where it should be. The hull sides were actually fine. We were just planning on doing the top, and the boat has a completely black bottom. But we also decided to do the hull sides.
For a closer look at the progress on the 38-footer, check out the slideshow above.
and then