Clear coat on a boat

[kelvin523]

In the middle of my 50th razor blade removing old clear coat...

[David]

Would clear coat be a bad idea over a painted hull? Was your hull clear coated over gel?

[sonicss33]

I’m sure there will be many opinions here but based on my experience, the clear coat on my painted Checkmate is awesome so far. The running surface is only gelcoat.

[LakeFever]

I would say auto type clear coat over chalked gel as a “resto” is not going to last very well. Clear gel over faded gel is a win. Auto type clear coat over properly prepped and painted deck is good to go. Auto paint on the hull below the water line is not going to be good at all.

[skialot2]

In the middle of my 50th razor blade removing old clear coat...

If you are taking clear off of gelcoat, Fiberglass paint remover works great without damaging the gelcoat at all. I took all the yellow paint off my Checkmate with 1 quart
Spread it on. wait 20 minutes. scrape with razorblade. Comes off it sheets.

[kelvin523]

Would clear coat be a bad idea over a painted hull? Was your hull clear coated over gel?

From what I can guess; the red is painted very very well, however there was a layer of clear that started to peel on the stripes. The clear didn't extend to the paint so a razor really worked perfect at removing it right up to the red paint line. I'm not sure about clearing the stripes gel in this situation; I was able to wet wet sand up to 5k and it came out beautiful. (2 pictures below before; 1 after)

I'm working on the black windscreen which is removable and want to prime to paint white, removing the existing clear on it. I did think about using aircraft remover but it didn't appear to be fiberglass safe and didn't realize there is fiberglass safe paint remover. Thank you for those details; I ordered the removal and going to bring the windscreen into my heated garage and give it a try in +60f.

Thanks to all for the great feedback on the topic; there's not much information out there, hope this helps others.