Case Study
Ceramic Coating On Gelcoat | 24′ SeaHunter

Overview
1

Tom owns a 24’ SeaHunter with a stunning dark blue hull. As other boat owners understand with colored hulls, they can look amazing, but also suffer terribly from sun damage and easily show oxidization. Tom wanted a better solution than traditional buff and wax. He began searching on The Hull Truth for a gelcoat ceramic coating to protect his boat.

Brand:
SeaHunter
Length:
24'
Location:
Islamorada, FL
Challenge
2

Maintaining the shine and color of your hull is challenging especially when you are dealing with the sun exposure and temperatures as we experience in South Florida.

To date, most boat owners have resorted to the traditional approach to buff and wax their boat for protection. However, as most of you already know, wax will only last a few months before wax must be reapplied.

This was the problem Tom continued to face. He takes great pride in his boat and wants to keep up the appearance. He mentioned to us that in the past, he needed the boat to be acid washed and wet sanded. In both of those instances, the boat looked amazing right afterwards, but oxidization began to show in just a few months.

Tom knew there was a better way. He began to search online for alternatives to protect his boat. And, he came across Glidecoat and our gelcoat ceramic coating to protect his investment from the harsh marine conditions in South Florida.

9.7 gloss meter reading on dark blue hull of SeaHunter boat
With noticeable oxidization on the hull of the SeaHunter, the gloss meter readings are registering at 9.7.
Before any restoration process, major oxidization and significant scratches in the surface.
The Process
3

Upon arriving at the boat, the port side had heavy oxidization on the hull including significant scratches along both sides from normal use and previous maintenance work.

Before starting any restoration work, we utilize a gloss meter to provide us with a numerical measurement of the gloss of the surface. A factory new boat with gelcoat hull will register gloss meter readings from 82 - 88.

On areas of the boat with the heavy oxidization, we had gloss meter readings as low as 9.7. To combat the heavy oxidization on the surface, we needed complete multiple restoration steps including the use of heavy compound and wool pad to cut into the surface and repair the surface.

During the restoration process, you could see signs the gel coat was wearing thin in areas of the hull. This is one of the advantages with our ceramic coating as once we have completed the restoration process, our ceramic coating will lock in the surface. This prevents boat owners from continually cutting into the gel coat.

Diagram with four steps to show the entire restoration process including wash & prep, surface restoration, surface preparation and coating application
The Glidecoat Gelcoat Ceramic Coating is a five stage process completed by our certified applicators. After an initial assessment of the boat, we get started washing and preparing the boat and carefully apply the exclusive line of Glidecoat products. The Professional Nano Ceramic process completely restores your boat’s surface and offers the ultimate protection available.

Now comes the real transformation.

At this point, we have finished the restoration process to bring back the shine and color of the hull. Before applying our gelcoat ceramic coating, we use Surface Wipe, a denatured alcohol to sterilize the surface and ensure all contaminants are removed from the surface.

With the surface now fully prepared and consistent we started the gel coat ceramic coating application.

Applying two (2) coats of our gelcoat ceramic coating, the coating will fill in all of the pores of the surface and after 8 hours of curing time, will create a protective barrier on the hull to prevent oxidization and hard water marks.

After the curing process, the hull of the boat will look like glass!

Man holding red sponge and silver bottle and a dime size of liquid ceramic coating poured into the middle of the sponge.
A little goes a long way! Surprising to your first time using the gelcoat ceramic coating is how a little of product can go a long way. When applying the coating to a 2' by 2' area, you should pour approximately the size of a penny.
The Result
4

Once finished, you could see a tremendous transformation. Glidecoat’s Top Coating Kit, will enhance the boat's gelcoat, bringing back not just the shine, but the color as well and protect the finish going forward for a minimum of 18 months without the need for boat wax. In addition, it provides a high degree of UV resistance and makes the surface hydrophobic, so acid rain, fish blood, salt will not be absorbed into the paint, but rinse off with water.

Gelcoat ceramic coatings provide a much deeper shine and luster vs traditional wax, giving your boat a show room finish that is better than new! Tom had always used traditional wax on his boats, but after the Glidecoat gelcoat ceramic coating application he will never go back to wax again!

90 gloss meter reading after ceramic coating application on SeaHunter boat

After complete restoration process to the gel coat and applying two (2) coats of the Glidecoat ceramic coating, we took gloss meter readings to measure the change. The gloss readings climbed from 9.7 to 90. The readings are higher than factory new gelcoat.

Starboard of SeaHunter after ceramic coating application

The dark blue hull with glossy finish that you can perfectly see the reflection of the white truck in the distance.

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