This pool slide in Los Angeles had done its time. The fiberglass gel coat was chalked and yellowed from a decade of UV exposure, the surface had lost its gloss, and the water-contact face was starting to show weave texture through the finish. The owner wanted it looking new again — not replaced, re-glazed.
Why gel coat, not paint
Painting a pool slide looks fine for about one summer. The problem is movement: fiberglass flexes under weight, and ordinary paints don’t flex with it — they cobweb-crack and peel. Marine-grade gel coat is a tinted polyester resin that bonds chemically to the fiberglass substrate, flexes with the structure, and holds up to chlorine, UV, and water for years. It’s the same material the slide was factory-finished with.
Prep: mask, sand, mask again
The whole slide got taped and papered — rails, bolts, ladder, and the surrounding pool deck. Then the entire surface was sanded with a rotary sander to break the surface glaze and give the new gel coat something to bite into. The deeper weathered spots needed heavier grit; the clean areas needed only a light scuff. Dust was wiped off with a tack cloth.
Spray application
Gel coat went on with an HVLP spray gun, applied in two to three thin coats, letting each flash off before the next. Spray work was done with full respirators (P100 filters) — styrene fumes from polyester resin are no joke. Keeping the mil thickness even across the curved sliding surface is the whole challenge; a thin spot streaks, a thick spot runs.
Buff and wax
After cure, the finish was cleaned with Collinite 920 Fiberglass Cleaner — a mild cutting polish that pulls out any orange-peel texture and brings the surface to a wet gloss. Final step was two coats of Collinite 885 Fleetwax, buffed in with a wool pad on a rotary. Fleetwax is a marine paste wax with UV inhibitors — the same wax used on boat hulls — and it protects the finish from the first sun hit onward.
The result
The slide reads like it just left the factory. The chalk is gone, the gloss is back, water beads on the sliding surface. With yearly waxing, the gel coat should hold for years before another re-glaze.
Project summary
- Scope: full fiberglass pool slide gel coat refinishing — strip, prep, re-glaze, polish, wax
- Finish: marine-grade polyester gel coat, HVLP spray, two to three coats
- Products visible on site: Collinite 920 Fiberglass Cleaner, Collinite 885 Fleetwax
- Equipment: rotary sander, HVLP cup gun, rotary buffer with wool pad, P100 respirators
Pool slide, fiberglass shower surround, boat hull, or any gel-coated surface that’s lost its gloss? Get in touch — we re-glaze instead of replace.