Refinish w/out gelcoat?? What to use?

[sho305]

If I were going to refinish a whole 18' boat and did not want to use gelcoat, what are my choices?

I used VC Performance Epoxy on my transom, and I am happy with it so far. It has Teflon in it, and seems to be pretty hard as well as fairly easy to work with.
http://us.yachtpaint.com/usa/product_guide/antifouling/US_vc_perf_epoxy.asp?ComponentID=6624&SourcePageID=6778
This might be faster on the hull(teflon?), and I can leave the boat in the water if desired. It is also less then $80/gallon sprayable and sprays easy/sands easy. Pretty much has to be white, but I like white. I tinted mine offwhite easily though.

So what to use on the top? I can use auto paint like dupont. Have had the best durability on cars by using the single stage and clearing over that actually. Can be hard to do metallics that way as single stages like to tiger stripe, but that can be overcome. Have heard that the shiney topside paints work well above the water line. Really want a metalic though, and want to use the biggest flake that fits a standard gun. Figure I can add flake, or substitute flake in an automotive color easy.

My best plan so far is to do the bottom with VC, then the top with car paint and use graphics to break it up on top, or above the waterline so I don't have to follow the beltline. Not sure if I can use dupont over the VC for a stripe....maybe not. I can get around graphics below the waterline if I have to.

Is there anything else out there?

[vector mike]

AwlGrip is the best marine paint if you are only going to do one color. I have painted with AwlGrip, Imron and Chroma Base two step system and found out that for one color you can't beat AwlGrip but if you want to do stripes or more than one color I would use the two step base coat clear coat system. I'm getting ready to spray my Vector soon and am going to be using the two step system and spraying metal flake over that. :)

[sho305]

Vector Mike-do you have a plan to do the flake? I was thinking to replace the metallic in an auto color with the flake. It looks like gelcoat puts the flake on, then uses tinted clear over it for color, then just clear. I have mixed metallic in clear for effect, not big flake though, and it worked good. I think I could do a couple coats flake and maybe color tint, then let it dry and do more just clear over it to do it that way too.