Gelcoat Or Paint? Which One Should I Use On My Boat Restoration!!

I have read through nearly every comment and couldn't find a good subject pertaining to my situation so you wouldn't have to answer twice so I truly hope you have the time to respond because I'm a bit desperate. I'm trying to restore my 1990 Stratos bass boat but due to the multi colors and the flake I am struggling terribly with the sanding, buffing, polishing restore process because of the depth it's taking from years of wear and depth of sanding I'm hitting base color.
Should I just sand it and repaint it with a Marine flake or go back with a gel coat because of the flake and the nature of use (over the sides continually)??? Any help would be so appreciated..

What would you use for a Timber Hartley half cabin boat both the hull and the top of cabin thanks

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How can you tell what you have on your boat?

Paint it is! Thank you for your advice, my friend.

Sounds like paint is the way to go - by a long, long way.

good information

great video! answered my question perfectly thank you!

you talk about painting a boat with gel coat ,and paint ,you are misleading the people gel coat is used on molds ,it goes hard against the mold ,and stays tacky on the inside to do your layup on ,normal person who has no knowledge of what he is doing ,you use flow coat which is gel coat which has wax added to it ,it now goes hard on both sides and can also be sprayed using a low pressure spray gun

Awesome advice thank you

for a fella with his very first boat...16ft 2 berth.....one question....im UK so you speak of gelcoat and paint.....in what terms are you using the word paint....household gloss/oil based ?........can i use household oil based paint on the hull of my boat .....?

whats yr opinion on wet sanding a boat with say some 400 /600 then clear coating with clear acrilic enamel with hardner?

I need some advice. I have an piranha style powerboat, about 4m long. The old gelcoat has cracked on like 50% of the boat. The gelcoat has also been sanded away in certain spots for fiberglass repairs.

Do I need to put a new gelcoat on (I know my way around spray painting) or will numerous coats of epoxy paint be just as good? I'm not talking about looks, just protection of the fiberglass. I understand the gelcoat is a layer that protects the fiberglass from the elements, will a good 2k epoxy paint be just as good for protecting the fiberglass or not?

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16th of an inch? I just picked up a 97 sea ray 175 and the gel coat around the top edge of the boat seems like it has a texture it is so wore out. where the stripe is coming off there is a definite ridge between under the stripe and the rest. You think this is sandable? Under the rub rail it is fine. Kinda hard to describe. clear, concise video. thanks.

Someone who knows what the hell he's talking about, on Youtube. Imagine!

Great information,,I am just now trying to decide if I want to restore a fiberglass boat I have or not. I am a little experienced working with fiberglass, wood and metal, they painting and coatings have me wondering what direction I should go. As I am not convinced yet if I want to do this project, your videos are very helpful of course you make it all look pretty easy. Thanks, I am sure you will see more comments from me as I have just found your youtube channel and exploring the videos.

Great information thanks. I want to redo my entire transom on a sailboat. How should I prep and what paint do i use/? What is tip and brush?

I am in the process of restoring an old 1965 Crestliner Mustang. When prepping the hull for paint and sanding it down etc would it make sense to regel coat and then paint? Or is that not necessary? Ive used a lot of your videos on glassing in my seat mounts and deck etc. very helpful.

Great videos. Those haters are stupid! You are taking time out of your day to tell us your tricks of the trade. And I've learned a lot watching! Can't say thank you enough!