If you don't coat the bottom of the boat with slick stuff, are most people leaving it bare aluminum or just painting body color?

most I've seen are at least painted the boat color.

yea that's kinda what I was thinking. I might do gator glide in the future so I was trying to avoid having to sand it when the time comes. I might just just do it now while I'm working on it. I don't really need gator glide but everyone on here seems to really think it helps. The only thing I think it might help me with is pushing the boat over beaver dams that I don't want to hit at speed.

Regular paint is way slicker than bare aluminum when wet. If you aren't going to do GG, then go ahead and paint it if you run a lot of veg and grass. Just my .02. If it was mine I'd go ahead and gator glide it. It is most definitely worth it.

Does bare aluminum slow the boat down in water or only mud and veggies?


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you will gain no speeds with GG, I know I didn't. It does however aid in launching your hull, running any vegetation or muck. Before I had GG, when I hit a Lillie patch on our lease, it was like slamming on the brakes. Now, I have to be careful, because you can hit a grass patch, and slide 75 yards across that sucker. I applied GG to my sanded down bare hull. I have however seen it added to a painted hull too.

Ok so now the question is, gg first or boat paint first? I'll mask either way. I'm assuming boat paint first and just keep the masking in place for where the gg will go, but you know what they say about assuming...

Some would say use a real good aircraft aluminum etching primer before I would say rough up the bare aluminum and just put gg on it

I sanded mine down, then wiped with acetone. Put the GG on the bare hull. Then painted hull around the GG

Sweet, thanks.

how big is the boat?

I did my 1754 gator tax which is actually 18' 8"x54 with 1/2 gallon kit of base and glide. Still had plenty left over for a touch up coat or 2 in the future. You are supposed to put it on thin and it will go a long way if you do.

Frog, what is the difference in G2 and G4?

From personal experience, go with the G2, it seemed much more than 10% more slick to me.

10-4, thanks for the replies.

1854 ...I ordered the g2 1/2 gal

Will masking tape stick to the gator Glide

You'd be better off painting, then do GG.
GG is similar to a non stick Teflon cooking skillet. Haha

Yea that's what I think I'll do. Now I just need to convince some of my friends to come help me in the next weekend or two...

I actually taped off the hull approx. 1/2" above the gatorglide. then applied another layer to that tape then to some drop cloth. painted the whole hull, then came back with a scrap piece of aluminum and held it on the gatotglide line. Sprayed the area where the tape was and it blended it. Cant tell.