Gelcoated polished pontoons

[paradise]

So we have tried in the past to polish the pontoons on our boats and struggled to get the polish to stay even after short amounts of time in the water. That coupled with the aluminum that PlayCraft uses (VERY hard to polish) makes it an almost impossible feat to keep them looking good.

In past years people have told us to use sharkhide, which we tried last year, and it made a HUGE mess out of the toons... For whatever reason, we had very large "gouges" in the aluminum which had to be wet sanded out to get back to a smooth finish. Long story short, not my favorite product.

This year my dad got ahold of a guy in Havasu that said he could polish and gelcoat the toons for under $2k (I think it was closer to $1K). We were skeptical, but he said he could do it, so we let him run with it. I though I would show you guys the results and let you know that we're very happy with how it turned out.

The gelcoat definitely kills a little bit of the bright "chrome" shine, but the easy wipedown maintenance is awesome. You can really see the difference between his and mine in the third pic (mine had been toon-brited the trip before). Here are the pics, enjoy :champagne::

 

[Flyinbowtie]

Polished pontoons.
Awesome.
I have some houseboat buddies on a lake that love to play "Can you top this" with each other, wait til I tell them about this.

 

[TBI]

Gelcoated or powder coated?

 

[paradise]

It's actually gelcoated. There would be no way to bake the toons...

 

[OCMerrill]

Gelcoated or powder coated?

How would you bake it?

 

[Crazyhippy]

How would you bake it?

TBI has it figured out...


Something something Tapatalk

 

[TBI]

Same way they bake powdercoated trailers

 

[Mohave Vice]

Looks great!

 

[Crazyhippy]

Same way they bake powdercoated trailers

Not quite what I was thinking, but sure!!!


Something something Tapatalk

 

[TBI]

Not quite what I was thinking, but sure!!!


Something something Tapatalk

I know what you were thinking

 

[OCMerrill]

Same way they bake powdercoated trailers

With a big fucking oven or Parker in August.

 

[Tom Brown]

Same way they bake powdercoated trailers

You mean by smoking a joint while the pontoons bake in an oven?

 

[Outlaw]

So your saying they applied clear GEL coat over the polished toons??
I have been thinking of spraying
Prestec clear over a few of my polished parts that cannot withstand
The heat of Powder coat
Prestec is pretty tough once it cures
UV and chemical resistant


Sent from my iPhone

 

[Fltplan]

That is a nice looking boat! Every time I see a cool pontoon, I wonder how the hell you make em look good. That's it, nice work!

 

[Not So Fast]

My toons are polished and where ever the sharkshide gets worn off they are very bright, but the sharkshide does dull them quite a bit, but without it they look like crap almost immedaitely. Like to have a longivity report back from you after the summer to see how it held up. Looks good :thumbsup
NSF

 

[rivermobster]

So how's that gelcoat gonna hold up when you beach it on gravel and such??

Looks good, but I would think it would be high maintence?? (as in, youd have to be real careful??)

 

[paradise]

We don't put the boats on anything but sand so gravel shouldn't be an issue. That said, I think it will work just like a regular fiberglass boat in that it'll last a few years and then the bottom will need to be freshened up.

It's just a test, we don't know how it's going to work lol. I'll try to keep you guys updated on how it's working.

Zack

 

[rivermobster]

We don't put the boats on anything but sand so gravel shouldn't be an issue. That said, I think it will work just like a regular fiberglass boat in that it'll last a few years and then the bottom will need to be freshened up.

It's just a test, we don't know how it's going to work lol. I'll try to keep you guys updated on how it's working.

Zack

Thanks, and good luck! :thumbsup

 

[Not So Fast]

We don't put the boats on anything but sand so gravel shouldn't be an issue. That said, I think it will work just like a regular fiberglass boat in that it'll last a few years and then the bottom will need to be freshened up.

It's just a test, we don't know how it's going to work lol. I'll try to keep you guys updated on how it's working.

Zack

Isnt that what makes a pontoon great? I dont pull onto rocks but sandy gravel is no problem, as far as the bottom goes, having a few scrapes, well, shit happens. I was careful with my Magic but I still beached it and it had a few scrapes, not gonna anchor off shore everytime we stop, but thats just me.
Keep us uptodate OK
NSF

 

[paradise]

Roger that!

 

[paradise]

Roger that!

Update:

One corner of the gelcoat started to lift this past weekend at the bottom and end of one of the pontoons. We are heading to powell in a few weeks and then it goes back to Havasu to see what the guy wants to do to fix it (he gave us a warranty). He only ran the gelcoat down to basically the trailer bunks; I think he's going to have to lift the boat and run it all the way around to the inside to keep it from lifting at the edges.

I'll let everyone know how it goes

 

[Performance Boat Candy]

Looks great. Your guy did a good job :thumbsup

 

[Performance Boat Candy]

You mean by smoking a joint while the pontoons bake in an oven?

LOL

 

[havasuhusker]

Looks good. Would like to hear what the guy does to fix it for you. I have a Playcraft and just use toon brite. Never heard of sharkhide before. Always looking for new ways to keep the tubes shiny.

 

[hipcash]

I had my toons powder coated from the factory. 5 years later they still look new

 

[TCHB]

My old toon boat were polished and clear coated with Sharkhide. It held up pretty good. My new Playcraft toons are powder coated white. A lot easier to keep clean.

 

[BajaMike]

I can't really see it in these pictures....I'd like to see some good pics of it out of the water.

 

[paradise]

The boat is already in the water this Weekend but I will see if I can get pics. This is my dads boat and he did not like the way the powder coated toons looked. He preferred polished.

We had done sharkhide before but had bad luck with it so we decided to have a professional do it and he proposed gelcoated with a warranty so how could we turn it down lol