bought a 100 dollar gallon of clear coat, im just doing the top half of the boat, then goig to recarpet it....any advice is greatly appreciated

Hire Spanky!

Make certain there's no weak spots in the fiberglass of the floor before you recarpet it...Scrape off all the glue and use carpet with MARINE backing...Try to find carpet with Olefin...

Why are you redoing the clear coat?

Don't waste your time on Polyester fiberglass boat and Polyurethane clear coat. The two are no compatiable chemically and it will only turn yellow and start pealing within a year. If you want a clear that will work, do Pittsburg Paint called Anti-griffity paint. It's a clear overcoat that will stay on forever and the product is somewhat like a two part epoxy that will cost you around $500.oo for 1 gal. I know it's high, but it ain't no higher than using a product that won't work.

Ditto! I've been telling people for years that I've got the room to add a paint booth. I could charge between $1500-$2500 and reclear boats all day long. The reason why I don't, is because within 6 months to 2 years, it will start peeling off. After 3 years, my name would be "Mud" because I would have so many people ticked off. Even if I had them sign the work order with an understanding it would eventually lift off, they would still get mad. So I just don't do it.

I've never used the clear that Mike is talking about, so I can't comment on it. If he say's it's good, then I'm sure it is. For $500 it better be darn good!

I have to admit, it's the darness product that I've ever seen. Nothing and I mean Nothing will stick to it. For a test, I sprayed black laquer spray paint out of the can on this stuff in direct, 104degree, clear blue bird sky. Gave it 5 minutes to dry and then sprayed Windex on it and wiped right off with paper towel. The funniest part was that after doing a Champion boat, we put new Champion Decals on the consoles, next morning the decals were laying on the floor all curled up, they would not stick, also the TX# fell off. We had to sand the area, reapply the TX# and clear coat over them, to keep them on.

Like Mike and Mike said,
No automotive clear will last at all, complete waste of time using it.

Sorry to pee in your corn flakes, but you're far from the first one down this path.

ya its an automotive clear coat, and after reading this, i dont think it will get clear coated now, thanks guys.

Ps-not going to spend 500 dollars on a clear coat,hehe, thanks though

what is olefin, i just have outdoor carpet that im going to put in.

just got done ripping all the carpet out, going to recarpet tomorrow

well i found a marine grade spar varnish- and going with a gloss finish is this still going to be worth it

Olefin is a carpet fiber that is actually made from plastic. We use recycled plastic bottles to make it. I would be leery of the marine grade spar varnish too. Spray something and leave it in the sun for awhile to see what it does. I heard a fews years back that you need to rub out the boat and then clean with acetone but I am sure that you can find something on the web. I remember old Johnny Shraedel telling me that the first thing he would do with a clearcoted boat would to be spray several more coats of clear. Johnny was quite a character some of the folks on this forum from the DFW area might remember him.

The spar varnish is and will be a worse solution than spraying clear coat. Spar varnish won't last at all,(you might even see it turn yellow and flake off while you're doing it)LOL LOL LOL

well i just backed out on it all, im going to wait on SPANKY to come by and do it next week...pretty siked about him coming, im really interested in watching him do it....he said there some new stuff on the market that he uses.

think he said it was VNV MARINE, but i looked them up and could not find them

I made the mistake of cleaning my cowl and doing the automotive clear coat--
dang think looks worse than if it was Ronnie's,
on the bottom of the lake..GO PRO...

hey now!!! its a fish attractor now!!!

SPANKYS is gonna clear my boat with the new stuff as well. I dont want to put the name of it out there, cause its a secret Hope he makes a killing off it

when i was talking to him on the phone i kinda got that feeling, im excited

I hope it's not Vertglass. I didn't care for it, and after a year, it looked like po-po.

this is what i found on vertglass


Over time, pigment in gelcoat fades at different rates in different areas, and the surface gets rough, which makes it look dull.


If gelcoat is fairly new, under 10 to 15 years old, probably can polish it, then apply wax, arylic, or paint.


Wax: The larger the molecules in it, the longer the coating lasts but the harder it is to apply and buff out. Liquid waxes are okay, but the best are hard-paste waxes such as carnauba.


Acrylic films (Vertglass, New Glass, Poli-Glow, etc): water-based products with suspended drops of resin. Easy to apply, but many coats required, require periodic maintenance coats. Problems can include milky appearance, flaking (probably from bad surface preparation), and difficult removal.


Paint: Requires meticulous surface preparation, and probably professional application. Can be expensive, but should last for years.

but vertglass came out a few years ago, the stuff spanky is using is supposily fairly new

SPANKY has a new product, he wouldnt even tell me the name of it. BUT- i trust him, so it doenst matter.