TotalBoat Gelcoat

Purchased Total Boat Gel Coat with wax in July 2019 and noticed product would not cure at 1% MEKP catalyst. Tried coating with Polyvinyl alcohol but it did not help. I contacted the company with all the product information and was told they had sold lots of that batch and had heard of no problems and I should give it longer to cure. On the assurance of the company, I increased MEKP to 3% and sprayed the material at the recommended 10% MEK dilution. I then allowed 4 weeks for product to cure. It has not and can be softened with acetone and peeled up with a paint scraper. It will take hours to remove and re-prep the fiberglass. I consider Total Boat a Total Failure and would not recommend this product.

Could not have renovated a sailboat that went through Hurricane Michael, without this stuff. The biggest complaint I have heard in the past is that gel coat that is not molded onto fiberglass does not adhere well. My boat was completely bare of polish or wax, and pre-sanded with 220/400/600/1000/ and 1500, because my existing gelcoat was in horrible condition. Took more sanding at the coarser level, and very little at the fine, finishing level. Don't know about a boat with wax, but I did find if I inadvertently dropped a drop on virtually anything, this stuff adheres to the point I can't remove it, plastic, cement, stainless steel etc. I got the no-wax because I have an older boat and did not want a standout shiny patch. Having said that, I would speculate that a pure plastic (then coated with wax after drying) would be stronger than a plastic mixed with a foreign material like wax.There is an art to using gelcoat over epoxy and filler. If you are not a skilled sander you may have trouble. I put on with a paint brush quickly in a space surrounded by painters tape. I also did a few less drops of MEK than was recommended which extended my dry time, but also "working" time. Then I removed the tape even before it dried, because when I had let it dry, it pulled up the edges of the gelcoat paint job. Started with 160 sandpaper and went to 400 for final finish--all wet sanding only. Takes patience, and you have to be careful around the edges where the old finish is.This stuff is dynamite on non-sked surfaces. Did not even have to get rid of the dead gelcoat--just cleaned with soap and water. Used a high quality paint brush that I had to toss after each application, and worked quickly. Non-skid has two sets of lines--one down and to the right, the other ninety degrees off and to the left. I brushed on to the right and finish brushed into the other set of lines to the left. Makes a more uniform looking surface. Hard as nails and stain free thus far. Sealed with several coats of Star-brite marine polish. Looks brand new. And, almost forgot, had to tape around each non-stick surface to make it look professional, when applying.

I had the pleasure of running my (new to me) $4000 Epic surfski over a barnacle clad rock while out paddling. The resulting gouges and scratches penetrated the boat's clear coat and almost down to the Kevlar/carbon fiber weave. I ordered this Gelcoat (with wax), followed the directions and... success! Outside of a slight difference in color, you would never even know the damage had occurred. The gelcoat was easy to work with, especially once I let it cure and switched from dry sanding to wet sanding. Since I live 80 yards from the Atlantic ocean, I'm sure that this will be the first of many gelcoat repairs I'll be doing over the years. I am glad to have a pint of this gelcoat paint on hand.

You can color match this. Here's How...I really have had no issues and just great things to say about these Totalboat products. The total fair.. wetedge...Gelcoat.All of them have worked great !!Anyway,My boat is more of an "Alabaster" .. It's a paint color from the Sherwin Williams paint store color cards.By the way, I was an assistant Manager at one of these stores for 4 years.Paint mixing and matching was a nonstop thing. So I am giving you diamonds here..I bought cheap plastic bowls from Walmart. They are about 3" in diameter in the bottom. 4 for a buckI also bought Mixol color tints from Amazon.I use the Euchre (mixol # 5) , and the Shwarz (black forgot the number) ...so gold and black are the tints.MIX SMALL BATCHES !!First put about 1/2 inches of this Gelcoat into one of the walmart bowls.add 1 drop of gold and one drop of black.mix with a popsicle stick. It wont look dark enough. BUT THE HARDENER DARKENS IT !then add the hardener. about 10 drops.MIX AGAIN THOROUGHLY..and there you go.If its too dark OR yellow.. add more white... if its too light, add another drop of yellow, or black or both.PLAY WITH IT. its not that hard. just takes some trial and error.

This is the first can of gelcoat I've ever bought. I used it to paint the inside of a concrete bird bath that was leaking through pores and cracks in the concrete. The gelcoat sealed it up completely. Now it's beautiful and doesn't leak. The dark spots in the photo are reflections of the trees overhead, not dark spots in the bath. It was so shockingly white that I had to put some sand in the bottom to keep from freaking out the birds.

Very impressed with this two part solution. Last fall during a terrible easterly in october my sloop stretched 3 feet toward the floating dock. it was just enough to scrape the gel coat off but not touch the fiberglass (thank god). I lost about 2.5' x 2"of vertical bow gel coat from the up and down motion (it was rubbing on dock hardware, not wood). After prepping the area with a dremel sand tool, taped it off, then slapped this product on thick. After it had set up enough to not slump, i removed the tape. The next day it was hard enough to shape. The color match was great, esp from 6 feet away. I have a typical "white" beneteau hull. Some spots were thin on my first shaping so i re did the process one more time. I have done a lot of my own work over the years and highly recommend this.