I have a boat with pretty bad sun damage and I was thinking about putting a new clear coat on it. I realize it is a gel coat. My dad painted cars for 30+ years and offered to help spray it. He can paint much better than I can. I have a couple of questions. First, is it worth it bothering with? Second, what tips would you guys offer? My dad knows a lot about painting cars, but boats are obviously different. Any help or thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I forgot to mention. I am planning on just painting the top of the boat. Not planning on painting the under side of it.

Google "Imron painting tips" Its a paint made for boats and other Industrial uses. Supposed to be the best out there.

PM Sent.

Don't try to put clear coat for autos on it it will flake off in a year or so

Thanks for the help guys. I am going to take a pic tomorrow and post it so you guys can see what it looks like.

Did it once before using a 2 part poly form "Epiphanes" (easy to find w/ google). Boat looked great for 2-3 years BUT it is not the same as gel. Any scratches will cause it to peel in that area, it will fade fairly fast if not covered, etc.. All in all a pretty good fix but will not last like gel.

P-102

Checked it all about 9 years ago re-vamping a 482 Ranger. Ended up re-coating the gelcoat, changing from a black with red flack to white. I took it to a bare hull, repaired what needed repairing. Then had a guy that paints cars shoot the gel coat. It took 4 coats of white, letting it cure between coats for 24hrs, sand it and shoot it again. Then did 3 coats of non-blushing clear gel coat same. Then wet sand, buff and polish. Still looks great but shure was a lot of work. Fibreglass.com has a lot of good info.

DON'T USE CAR PAINT! You are wasting your time and money. It will look great for 2-3 months, then at some point it will start peeling off.

have you tried to wet sand it and buff it? I thought mine was unfixable until i read about someone wetsanding and buffing, i tried a few spots on my boat today with 320 grit , then 400, then 600 grit finished up with a buffing compound, It looked like glass again. It was very heavely oxidized before. I cant wait to do the whole thing now.

Also, i tried the two part marine paint from west marine on my last boat, it started chipping months later.

And years ago we tried a clearcoat paint that also chiped away leaving the boat looking blotchy. I dont recommend any of these paint on products.

i have a 91 cat and was heavely oxidised and read a thread on bass boat central .com under bass boat restoration and did wat it said to do and man it looks like a new boat took a few evenings . wet sand and i used maguires heavy oxyadation remover and maguires boat renew and polish and wax and used 3m foam pads on a electric high speed buffer you cant burn the gel if you use the foam pads i also started with 800 wetdry sand paper keeping it good and wet and then went to 1000 grit then 1500 grit and finily 2000 grit be sure you get the maguires stuff for boats it really does wonders i could not beleave wat it did for my boat if need more info just im me ed

+1 , i just read this post hes talking about , very good info

Thanks for the added info guys. I have about decided not to try to repaint it. Sounds like a lot of work for it to look bad again in a couple of years. I think I am going to try to sand it out. My plans for this weekend fell through. I may even try this weekend. Thanks for help. I will try to take a pic tomorrow and post it so you can see what I am talking about. Where can you get the really fine grit sand paper? Does Home Depot or Lowes sell it?

yes they have it, make sure its for wet sanding, do one small area with all the steps to see what it looks like first, even just buffing by hand after sanding the first spot made mine look better.