I have been reading this site for a couple of months now and specifically read this article several times hoping that I had missed something and that some product would jump off the page and help me out with my specific situation. I have a Lowe 14/36 that was given to me several years ago. The boat itself has no damage and almost all the paint is in good enough shape to save. I said almost all the paint. A tree had rubbed off about a 12" circle of paint on the outside, over the rail, and inside of the the hull. My question is, is there a product out there that I can prime this bare metal spot with that will not pull up the existing paint around it and still be able to have a fairly smooth finish. The latex primer in the article would work, however it said you could not sand it. With the latex primer, in y'all's opinion would I end up with something that looks good enough for a semi-gloss finish? And is semi-gloss the right sheen for a project like mine? In the end it is a fishing boat and I want it to look good.