88 Stratos Bass Boat needs new reclear

[mrstevewayne]

Hi gentlemen I have a 1988 Stratos Bass Boat Metalflake and metalic paint. It is faded and needs a new coat of clear applied to it. Can anyone help guide me? It is Grey Metalflake with blue matalliac paint. I have been reading about PO5, KBS Diamond Clear, and also marine coat one, and a Imron clear by Dupont. Now I am more confused that ever on what to use,
Does anyone have experance with any of these products? It is my first time at applying clearing a boat. You answers are appreciated.
Thank you in advance

 

[cyclops222]

Do not do a thing !! Until you find out what type of Clear Coat chemical was used on your boat. Are you sure the clear is original ? Are you as good as a auto body repainting shop ? No dust or insects landing on the wet paint ?

 

[Scott Danforth]

Read this. https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/gelcoating-the-whole-boat-down-to-the-waterline.61694/

 

[briangcc]

Imron I have some experience with, just not on boats. It's a commercial coating used on many items you see in your day-to-day, probably without realizing it. Diesel locomotives and freight cars for CSX/NS/etc are painted in the stuff. GM and other factories have painted storage tanks with it to test its resilience. My dad spec'd it as an architect for this purpose.

It's a 2 part coating and its really, really, really nasty stuff. You need full PPE to apply it and I would strongly encourage you to get a fresh air supply for your suit. You will be loopy in minutes painting in an enclosed space.

In my younger, stupider days I painted the stuff with a brush in an enclosed office - commercial setting. I'm amazed I wandered out of the office in one piece and didn't fall head first going down the stairs. I had a respirator off for about 5 minutes.

Glitter bomb bass boats, like yours, had the glitter mixed into clear gel and then applied. Much like how you would add glitter to an epoxy table top. It's not top coated with an automotive clear.

 

[Scott Danforth]

marine imron is Axalta

 

[mrstevewayne]

I have a bass boat that needs a light sanding and new clear coat applied. My boat is a 88 Stratos, Blue matallac, with a silver metalflake. I have been reading about PO5 clear, KBS clear, and Marine coat one, and Imron clear by Dupont. Now I am more confused than ever. Does anyone now what I should use? or are there any better clears other ones out there you could suggest me use? This is my first time doing this and I do want a good product that will last.
Thank you in advance for your ideas!

 

[briangcc]

Ok let's try it this way.....

Your boat is gel coated, not painted, with the glitter mixed into the clear gel then applied. To "fix" this, you get to re-gelcoat your boat. You don't "fix" it by applying an automotive clear coat to it.

Look up Friscoboater on Youtube with his Glastron. He shows how to reapply glitter based gelcoat.

So the short answer is...none of the above, you use GelCoat.

 

[matt167]

If the gel coat is roached that bad, there probably isn’t any way to easily bring it back. It’s getting easier to spray clear coat though with pearls and flakes due to the amount of pigments for pour epoxy projects now.. you actually can paint the boat. A lot of boats with tired gel coat end up painted. And then add pearl or flake to a clear coat if you want that look