Bringing shine back to bass boat

I have an '86 Ranger, with metal flake, that has lost it's shine on the top deck. The sides, below bondline, still have a nice shine to them, but the top is faded looking and not real "slick" feeling.

I tried to polish/wax it, but that doesn't seem to help.

Any ideas or tricks??

When it's wet it looks great and I plan on replacing the carpet this fall/winter, would it be a bad idea to apply a few coats of clear to the top deck?? What about even adding a little bit of metalic flake in with the clear just to make it shine and sparkle a bit more.

I've never worked with metal flake and I realize it's not metal anymore, but if I added it to the clear would that hide/cover some of the factory graphics? I don't want to do that, I just want it to look shiny again.

Re: Bringing shine back to bass boat

that's one of the problems with metal flake, you notice that cars with the older silver metal flake cars are all dull, looking. the clear coat gets a double dose of uv rays that kill the shine. uv from the sun, and the reflection back off the flake. the only solution if know of is to completely redo it. some of the corvette sites have some good info on this, as they had the fiberglass bodys with flake.

Re: Bringing shine back to bass boat

TR-3 Resin Glaze Polish is what I use on mine.
its not going to perform miricles but it makes my 40 year old fibeglass shine pretty well.
Its not wax nor is it clearcoat but it works very well on oxidized finishes.

Re: Bringing shine back to bass boat

Kevin W said:

TR-3 Resin Glaze Polish is what I use on mine.
its not going to perform miricles but it makes my 40 year old fibeglass shine pretty well.
Its not wax nor is it clearcoat but it works very well on oxidized finishes.

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Any suggestions on where to find this??

tashasdaddy said:

that's one of the problems with metal flake, you notice that cars with the older silver metal flake cars are all dull, looking. the clear coat gets a double dose of uv rays that kill the shine. uv from the sun, and the reflection back off the flake. the only solution if know of is to completely redo it. some of the corvette sites have some good info on this, as they had the fiberglass bodys with flake.

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When you say to redo it, what are you implying?? Stripping the complete finish off and redoing it?? Isn't the flake part of the gel coat? If so, are you saying to take the Gel coat off and re-apply it?

I'll look in some corvette forums.

Re: Bringing shine back to bass boat

wetsand it you will get the shine back

Re: Bringing shine back to bass boat

gotboostedvr6 said:

wetsand it you will get the shine back

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I'm afraid if I wetsand it much, I will eat into the flake.

I'm really curious what would happen if I clear coated it. I've been told not to, but I'm also told gel coat is basically just "fiberglass" resin. If that's true, why wouldn't it stick?

Re: Bringing shine back to bass boat

Ok, well I called a company called Fiberlay and they sell Gel Coat supplies, etc. They sell a clear Gel Coat and they say I should be able to spray that directly over my existing surface, after I prep it and wipe clean with acetone. I was told they sell a wax additive called Surface Seal and that I should spray 2 coats without the additive and then the last coat with it and the additive will provide a nice shine when finished.

I'm thinking of trying this on a fender or something to see what it does. Has anyone tried this and have any opinions??? I'm thinking of replacing my carpet this fall/winter so that would be the time to do it.

Re: Bringing shine back to bass boat

Ranger gell is super thick...... trust me and wetsand it, you will not be disappointed.

i have a 365v and had to wet sand it mine is black and has the thinnest gell of any other color.

All rangers from that era used black as the "primer" gell then changed the color after that depending on what you ordered.

They used black because it was not as obvious if you scratched it.

its a known fact that the black boats were 45 or so pounds lighter then the full colored hulls.

Re: Bringing shine back to bass boat

I believe you in some areas, but some of the areas already has some of the pin striping, which is also done in flake/gel, burning/wearing through. If I wetsand those areas, then I'll loose my striping.

Did you polish the gel after wetsanding it? If so, what did you use?