We have a boat about 20 years old that is starting to show its age. The original white gelcoat is getting "dull" and gets moldy because it tends to have minute cracks. Of course it looks new when I wash it with bleach before an outing. Fortunately every part that is under the cover looks new, its only the top facing parts that are outside the cover in the sunlight. The hull is nice and shiny.
Is there a "wax" or some other hand applied coating I can apply to improve its finish?
Short answer is no. You can look on the boating/sailing forums for lots of discussions on this and there are lots of YouTube videos, but in the end it seems like the only answer is to sand off the old gelcoat and re-apply.
Sp4rtan said:Short answer is no. You can look on the boating/sailing forums for lots of discussions on this and there are lots of YouTube videos, but in the end it seems like the only answer is to sand off the old gelcoat and re-apply.
Unfortunately, this.
There is a little give in it, but ultimately gelcoat is a hard coating. Once it cracks its cracked permanently. At that point you can put up with it and do regular cleanings and wax it and such, or you sand it off and start over.
Not sure if this helps, but we filmed a video over on Classic Motorsports on prepping fiberglass for paint.
While you can use gelcoat, you can also use a primer.
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