Thread: 1996 Blazer VL100 Restoration to Crappie Chaser

Second polish is done. I signed up with Glidecoat and have product arriving tomorrow. They offer a super fine polish so I ordered some for a third polish before applying the Glidecoat Ceramic coating. The plan is to put 2 coats of Glidecoat everywhere but the running surface with the 400 grit scratches. I thought on Scream & Fly somebody would have tried a Ceramic coating on the running surface but the only place I see is prop coatings. The prop coatings are mostly a 2 part product. Well since I have a boat lift in my shop I'm going to coat the running surface with several coats. If it wears quickly but produces a noticeable performance increase I may have to try the 2 part product on the pad area at least.

Quick Shot of the progress.......



The Glidecoat Pro they sent me is the 2 part system. I unpacked the box this morning. A professional applicator is necessary for purchasing the Glidecoat Pro. I will post the results when application is finished.

Looks good. I like the silver tape.

That’s some beautiful work! Thanks for the update

I dropped $700 in stashed tip money today on 3M DA Sandpaper, Rage Gold, mixing pads, 3M's new purple masking tape (you can make tight circles without using fine line), and lastly 6 new foam pads to finish polishing out the hull. Glidecoat's Nano polish feels super slick, like a high end 3M product. My polishing pads have been used for too course a compound to use with the new polish. Hopefully tomorrow will see a completed compounding. A couple of days then on to polishing. The final step will be Ceramic Coating. I will document well for all who would like more information about ceramic gelcoat coating before investing.
I wash a project (Car or Boat) with Dawn between compounding & polishing grit changes. The project's finishes get a coating of the previous cutting particles and oils that needs to be removed before moving on to the next step. The pictures are after 2 washings with Dawn & Hot water. I do not allow any water to dry on the job afterwards settling particulates on the virgin finish. After blowing all the water off with 150psi filtered air a new out of the bag microfiber towel is used to pickup any dirt the air swirled up.



Today I can move on to Glidecoat's NANO Polish. This will be the final prep before applying the Glidecoat PRO 2 part Ceramic coating to the polished surfaces. I don't think I bought enough for the running surface. I was able to have a very good conversation with Glidecoat's main Application Tech. We agreed 4 coats should be used on the Pad Area so I will do that separate. Also had a meeting with a very successful Hydroplane racer (Best Yamaha Mechanic here) about their experiments with different "Speed" coatings. He said the blueprinting was the most meaningful change. The Ceramic hull coatings were not out when they were racing (they used several coating with marginal success) but after showing the Ceramic's properties I could tell he wished they were.

Quick couple of pictures after Glidecoat NANO Polish & first coat of Glidecoat Pro.

Boy, it sure shines like a new penny. How much on the water performance do you think you’ll see?

Originally Posted by BuckeyeCrappie

Boy, it sure shines like a new penny. How much on the water performance do you think you’ll see?

When I really push it, I expected 2-3mph. Well I still have not pushed it WOT and raised the engine. When trimming up the entire boat comes so far out of the water it gets spooky even before I hit the Jackplate. The 4 blade prop was necessary to tame the Bow Lift. Stern Lifting 3 Blade props are only made by Power-Tech. With the 4 blade the boat gets up with 1/2 throttle now. I engineered it a little too good so where most Bass Boats need bow lift I don't. My Prop Buddy was thinking we may need a Semi-Clever design, just pitch and push without a lot of Rake.

Horsepower and speed is a diminishing return on the water. I have a 115 Evinrude 60 degree block bored and ready to build. It's 40 pounds lighter than the Yamaha. 40 pounds off the Jackplate (negative longitudinal stability) would help with running a Raker style prop. I can find a bit more horsepower with the Yamaha by adding 130HP Heads and rejetting the Carbs but that would only get another 5mph at best. Not worth stressing the engine over it.