HOW TO SAVE $5700.

[dtrs5kprs]

I do remember Bombers, along with Terry's (owned one), Mon Arks, Ventures.

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

2 hours ago, Ketchup said:

I had a Bomber "any of you remember those" bass boat in 1993 that was very oxidized and the clear was pretty rough. Being a young guy at the time, with time and energy on my hands, I spent a week, every evening after work in my garage, wet sanding every inch of the top side above the rub rail. I sprayed 2 layers of clear coat over it after I was satisfied with the wet sanding, and let me tell you what. That sucker shined. The pitting you see on boats left out after several years is the clear coat cracking/peeling. 

And you think of that long week of sanding every time you happily get in your aluminum now

[Ketchup]

haha. Hard to beat an aluminum boat, especially the way we fish. 

[dprice]

3 hours ago, Ketchup said:

I had a Bomber "any of you remember those" bass boat in 1993 that was very oxidized and the clear was pretty rough. Being a young guy at the time, with time and energy on my hands, I spent a week, every evening after work in my garage, wet sanding every inch of the top side above the rub rail. I sprayed 2 layers of clear coat over it after I was satisfied with the wet sanding, and let me tell you what. That sucker shined. The pitting you see on boats left out after several years is the clear coat cracking/peeling. 

I've wondered about this so you mean like automotive  clear ?

[Ketchup]

Yes. i used an automotive paint gun and layed it on pretty thick. I let it set out in the sun a few days between coats to cure. I had a Stratos 201Pro a few years ago that i wet sanded to clear and smooth out the clear coat and it came out like new after i buffed it. 

[176champion]

I sanded and buffed out my 89 Champion and it looks respectable now, it had many years of neglect. The clear coats of today are some better than what they where in 89 and as someone stated above my gel coat well get a dull look to it after awhile and i just get out the buffer and polish and have at it and i do wipe my boat down with wax as u dry from eagle one. There is a difference from what i'am told between marine clear coat and automotive clear coat, now whether it's true or not i dont know.

[JF660R]

The top cap of our Champion has been done with bedliner. Being a black boat anyway it looks good, is super durable, and grips well to step on. Not sure where the PO had it done, but I've had my truck bed and other stuff sprayed with Ultimate Linings by Gibbs Upholstery & Bedliner in Republic. 

[Flysmallie]

15 minutes ago, 176champion said:

There is a difference from what i'am told between marine clear coat and automotive clear coat, now whether it's true or not i dont know.

Huge difference. Been in the automotive coatings industry since 1987. Gel coat is thicker and more forgiving than any automotive clear. 

[fishinwrench]

For what it's worth here is what I know/have learned about gel coat:

The cloudiness that everyone refers to as "oxidation" is the result of the loss of petroleum (oil) from sun exposure, and reflective flake speeds up the loss and makes it look worse than if it was on a solid color with no flake.  If left alone long enough all of the oil will be pulled from the clear coat making it so thin that you can actually feel the flake underneath.   At that point it is just gone, but if a decent amount of the clear coat is still there you can actually soak the cloudy area in oil (motor oil, gear lube, just about anything petroleum based) and the clear coat will soak some up and restore that bright clear finish.  But it takes time (as in weeks of constant soaking) if it is really cloudy.   I learned this by accident after removing a V8 engine from an old salvaged boat sitting in a field. When we jerked the engine out we slopped oil all over the old boat and since it was going to eventually get bulldozed into a crush pile we didn't bother cleaning up our mess.  A couple months later the boat got shoved into a pile with various other dead soldiers and on the area where we slopped all that oil the finish looked and felt like a brand new boat. No amount of scrubbing/buffing anywhere else on that boat could have made it look and feel as pretty as the spots where all that oil sat on it for so long.   

So when I take in a faded old boat around here I buy 3-4 cans of Liquid Gold furniture polish and I spray it on until it is almost dripping off....And I just let it sit like that, then a few days later I drench it again....And again if it sits here long enough, then rub it down with a dry towel.   The longer you let it soak the longer it will stay looking nice.    Some non-detergent 30w motor oil will work too but I like being able to spray it on, so I use the Liquid Gold.   It works great and doesn't stain the carpet if it drips on it some, like motor oil will. But the trick is to saturate the clear coat and just let it soak in for as long as you can stand it.

This works on old dried out vinyl seats and decals too.

[vernon]

Hmmm.  Oil and water.  They won't mix but we can't do without either.

My thought for the day.

That's some really cool reading guys - I never had the slightest idea about why that happened to gel coat (other than the sun's rays ruined it) nor did I realize that there was a restoration process.  Fortunately, I've never encountered that problem but interesting nonetheless.

I do remember that during a conversation with none other than Forrest Wood in 2004 that he said in the early years (from the 60's to mid to late 70's) that they used to send back about as much gel coat product as they would keep due to inferior quality.  He said that being so "picky" about the gel coat (technical term) was the "secret" to Ranger's having a more eye catching shine and staying that way for so much longer than much of the competition.

Cool deal.