Do you take paint off a factory bait??

If you want to repaint a factory bait do you strip the lure or just paint over what is there. I have a few DT10's and Norman DD22 I would like to repaint.

Jeremy on the dt-10's or any wood baits if the clear coat is intact(no cracks or chips and dents) scuff the clear,shoot a basecoat(white),paint and seal. If its damaged fix with wood putty and do the same steps. On plastics you can remove the paint or leave it your choice.

I strip all of the baits that I refinish down to the bare wood or factory plastic. On the Rapala Baits there is a basecoat sealer that is very thick, paint, and clearcoat. The bait was made to run at a certain depth and with a certain type of wobble If you add a couple of coats of primer, paint and 2 coats of clear this will affect the way a bait performs.

Thanks guys!!

I've been painting the DT baits for a good while now. I do the same thing that Stacey stated above. If it's a new bait or has a good finish I just scuff the top coat and go from there. I've never had a bait that has been adversely affected by the painting and finishing process. They run just as well afterward as they did when they came out of the box. Just my experience...

Victor,
From a crankbait makers point of view if you add any additional weight to a bait that was designed to run in a particular fashion and at a specific weight and size, the bait will perform differently, before I started making baits I did repaint work for about 10 years. I have had interesting conversations with several top Cranking pros(from NC) about this very topic and this is what he told me, strip the bait if you can without damaging the wood underneath, then reseal the bait, prime,paint , and clear been doing it that way ever since. Thats the way they want them and that is exactly what I do. Next time weigh your bait before you begin then weigh it when you are done. There is a difference!!

Craig I dont doubt you their will be a difference in weight, but as far as action I havent seen it especially on the rapalas, balsa is very forgiving on weight as we all know and seems odd so many pros will add weight to their baits be it suspend dots or solder on the hooks.Even Fritts put out that video on drilling and weighting factory baits.I cant see the difference in weight between scuffing or resealing,2 coats of primer etc.. However I'll heed your advice and weigh the next repaint I do on a DT series http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/wink.gif

Stacey,
alot of the weighting associated with refinishing is dependant of the type of clearcoat you are using. Alot of guys use Devcon or Environtex, the Epoxy that I use was made for my specific application by a chemist/chemical engineer and is rather on the thick side. If you are using an automotive clear or a low build epoxy then it would be negligible. I guess it all depends upon what you are using!