How to gel coat? or paint on fibre glass

[Dominic Grant]

Ok I am a total novice at this

I own a number of 13ft fibre glass Rowing boats that are starting to look tired from hard usage

what i want to do is tidy the outsides up the paint work is looking faded and tired, I have tried standard marine paint and found it to be no good as it tends to flake

I am looking for advice and method of how to repaint? or coat the outer hulls to make them look great again

I will try to attach a few pictures of how tired they look

Please bear in mind I have no idea of what to do so if i could have some direction and instructions that would be great

Thankyou in advance

[ondarvr]

Flaking paint typically has more to do with the prep work than the paint.

Use a good two part part paint and it will last for many years, normally the higher the cost, the longer it holds up.

[Dominic Grant]

Many thanks I will look into that

[TripleCrownNC]

You first must sand away what ever that red apint is. Get down to the base of the boat. Fill any dings with 3M premium marine filler and sand smooth after it cures. When the boat is clean and ready, wipe with denatured alcohol followed by 2-3 coats of awlgrip 545 epoxy primer. Sand lightly between coats. Finish off by applying awlgrip 2 part marine paint by rolling on a small section then tipping off with a high quality brush, then moving on. You can read about the tecnique on alwgrips web site, rolling and tipping. 3-5 coats.

They have every color you can think of, that boat will wash easier than ever before when you are done.

The paint is expensive but a little goes a long way. You will also need a solvent respirator when applying.

http://www.awlgrip.com/Pages/home.aspx