TotalBoat Wet Edge Marine Topside Paint for Boats, Fiberglass, and Wood (Flat Gray), 1 Gallon (Pack of 1)

Three main factors to consider, from my POV. First is primer and surface prep. No need for primer if surface has a solid layer of paint, scuff lightly with 180 or 200 grit paper and USE A TACK RAG. Second factor is a quality brush...Purdy has oxtail brushes, unless you have or can find real Badger hair ones. On boats, a two inch is fine. You may need to thin the paint a bit; brush evenly and be careful of drips. When wet, it's best not to paint over what you've done. Wait and apply second coat. Third factor is weather....be careful and check the weather reports.Sorry, this is supposed to be a review of the paint, which I found very easy to apply and dries to a nice sheen. Can't comment on wear; boat is not in water yet. Customer support is excellent, don't guess, ask.

After the first coat, which was well thinned, I was tempted to call the job finished. The way this paint flows is incredible! Granted, it's been nearly 30 years since I've painted a boat, and have never used a paint like this before, but after the first coat it looked so good that even The Bride (who is a stickler for "perfection") thought I was finished with the job. I have never looked forward to painting before, but can hardly wait to find something else to use the remainder of this paint on. After the second coat had cured, I intentionally scratched it to see how strong it was, and I am really impressed with the quality. When the paint was delivered, the can had been damaged in shipping. There was a serious dent in the edge of the lid. Had I removed the lid, I would have been unable to re-seal it. I asked Amazon for a replacement, but found I could not return it because of some legal reason. After a short chat with customer service, I was told to keep the dented can and to be expecting another can. When the second can was delivered, it too had a small dent, but this was in the side and the lid was undamaged. I was impressed with the speed with which the replacement arrived, and it made me happy to be an Amazon customer. TotalBoat is an incredible company, and I encourage anybody who is even slightly interested in top quality products to review their extensive videos. I've spent hours learning new techniques and I've been messing with boats for years, but this is the first re-painting I've done in probably 30 years, and the technology has progressed a lot. This painting job was actually fun because of TotalBoat's quality and sharing of information.

I used this product to repaint a pool slide, it does a good job for that. Very glossy finish, looks wet when it is completely dry. I would suggest however that if you want the best final coat, to get the thinner. The paint is very thick and can be a pain to brush on for the final coat, I would have been happier if I had gotten the thinner and been able to go over it with a final coat that was thin and easier to put that perfect finish on. You need at least 2 coats to look good but a third one would have been even better, kind of like putting on the last coat polyurethane, you want it thin and spread a bit more evenly.

This chemistry is obviously a commercial grade paint that is intended for HEAVY DUTY APPLICATIONS. It covers very well and is durable. Well worth the price. One IMPORTANT TIP: you will be far better off to stir with a large grade paint stick, (these are available at Lowes/Home Depot). The pigment is very very thick and will prove difficult to stir by hand with the standard paint stick you are often given with the purchase of a gallon of paint. No you will not be able to shake the pigment into solution, however once it's mixed all constituents stay in solution with no difficulty. You will be happy with this paint

After it arrived we found out that several thin coats needed 16 to 24 hours each to dry. We felt deceived because we didnt read that on this amazon advertisement. HUGE change from car paints that i have used.We were originaly planning to brush it on but we decided it would be too much work. So first coat of paint we sprayed. Xylene is banned in our area so we tried it using the special brushing thinner. The first coat had to be completely sanded off because of all the runs. Dont thin with brushing thinner if you are going to spray! Maybe that should have been evident by the name but we tried it and it didnt work.The next coat we tried tipping and rolling. Even late in the evening the summer temps were too hot. The paint didnt flow out.Third coat was a last ditch effort, i thinned it with some reducer i had which was really just acetone and we sprayed it. It turned out ok.So we decided to wet sand it all to get the roller marks out from the second coat before attempting coat 4. That coat sprayed on well but we ran out of paint with about 3 square feet left to do. So we are waiting for another quart to be delivered from the east coast.Even though our results came out good I would not attempt to use this paint again. If i could do it over i would have paid more for a high quality car paint. Re-coat times are about ten minutes for most car paints. It would have saved us many hours in just clean up alone (having to clean up after applying each coat for several days in a row was a huge pain)Also the manufacturer recommends xylene as a spraying thinner but i dont think they realize it is not available in all areas.It would have been much easier to have bought paint locally and have local experts to help us get started.Unless you have a climate controlled paint booth i wouldnt recommend this paint. Try keeping bugs out of wet paint for 4 days!