Hull Sealer

[woodman7975]

I recently purchased a boat (1988 Sea Ray Seville - 19') and the guy I bought it from used it on the river a lot so it has a lot of scratches and some small gouges on the bottom. None of the gouges or scratches look like they are down to the fiberglass. I bought some of the Specturm gel coat for the gouges, but I did not want to fill all of the scratches. Is there a sealer that I can roll on or brush on that will cover the whole bottom. I went at it with some rubbing compound this weekend, but it did not bring back the shine to any of the area, so the clear coat is gone. Since this is below the water, I am not overly concerned about the looks and I am not real concerned with re-sale value since it is an older boat. I just want something that will work and that I don't have to worry about. Any suggestions?

 

[alldodge]

Searay doesn't use clear coat over gelcoat. Don't know of any sealers except paint. You could use bottom paint or reapply new gelcoat. Another option is epoxy paint but this requires the hull to be sanded with 80 grit prior

 

[mickyryan]

i just did mine in raptor liner line x would be good as well if you can afford it

 

[JASinIL2006]

Will this boat be stored dry or wet-slipped? If it's not going to be in the water all the time, I don't think I'd worry much about superficial scratches in the gelcoat.

 

[woodman7975]

It will be stored on a lift. I was just concerned since the bottom had lost its "shine" and there were a lot of scratches on the bottom. It looked like he had beached it a lot on sand bars and rubbed some of the gel coat off. I hit it with some rubbing compound and wax and couldn't get it back to the shine or smoothness on the sides of the boat.

 

[Scott Danforth]

without pics we are all just guessing.

gel takes elbow grease, wet-sanding, and machine buffing to get a shine back.