[mwhitney]

I have a 20 yr old fiberglass boat thst has faded. I am thinking about painting it. My question what would be the best type of paint, and is there any special prep work that needs to be done.

[mwhitney]

I have a 20 yr old fiberglass boat thst has faded. I am thinking about painting it. My question what would be the best type of paint, and is there any special prep work that needs to be done.

[shawn e.]

Most Fiber glass boats are built ftom the outside in. The boat mold is painted then a skin coat and then layers oven woven glass then the stiffening. The gel coat is usually fairly thick. So unless you have fractures I would think you could just re buff it........not an expert just a thought

[sailman]

I've done this a few times and the best bet is to lightly wetsand, buff, and polish the existing gelcoat (that's the polyester layer that is the existing finish). 3M makes some good polishes for this. The boat store stuff is just an overpriced version of the 3M products you can get from a paint/body supplier. If you have scratched or other damage through the gelcoat you can buy touchup kits at marine stores that you tint to match. Follow the instructions because the stuff cures differently than other resins. Here is a good reference link from Don Casey's very informative boat maintenance site:http://www.boatus.com/boattech/casey/02.htm

If you still want to paint it the best way is two part polyurethane witha brush, believe it or not. Use a method called "rolling and tipping" (google search polyurethane tipping) and you can get a glass like finish. One part poly works and is more user friendly but the results aren't quite as good.

I have also sparyed imron and even auto type enamel paints and they look good at first but aren't as durable as the poly (they scratch and chip and don't touch up well).

Bottom, line, there is much info on the web about rehabing fiberglass finishes and much like what we do with our cars, what works for you will depend on what you want to put into it in order to get the desired result.

[Stuart]

My next door neighbor picked up a '59 Luger "Le Continental" runabout a couple years ago. The turquoise gelcoat on the deck was pretty dull and faded, but after he spent a couple weekends working on it with various rubbing compounds and polishes, it came out looking pretty good - maybe not quite like brand new, but he gets a lot of compliments when he takes it out on the lake.

[sailman]

Also wanted to mention that because gelcoat is a porous material, you can enhance it with a solvent based conditionier such as Penetrol. It won't look glossy-new but it will restore some chalky, faded dard colors pretty well.

[mwhitney]

Thanks for the input, you guys are awesome. I will try the Penetrol, see how that works. Will let you know. Thanks again.