Fiberglass Swim Deck Refurb

[JMann]

I'm changing out the old padding on my swim deck with a Gatorstep pad. Gatorstep said the deck needs to be as smooth as possible for best adhesion. I pulled the old padding off and scrapped the glue off and sanded one side (still need to sand the other side). I'm wondering what I should use to coat this with before applying the Gatorstep?
I can have my painters spray with a Matthews Paint clearcoat, 2 part polyurethane sign paint, or should I use some type of epoxy resin.

What do you guys think would be the best way to finish it before applying the new pad?

[neil.anderson63]

I’ve done 2 swim platforms. Both using SeaDek which installs the same way. My last one was quite the adventure on a 2014 boat with the OEM rubber stuff. It took lots of acetone to remove all of the adhesive and backing that stuck to the adhesive. Best was a rag soaked with acetone and a plastic scraper. Takes a bunch of work to get it all off. If you’re battling adhesive, sanding is way overthinking. That OEM adhesive is stubborn, acetone will get it off. Soak with acetone and plastic scraper.
Once you get it all off, clean with window cleaner and lint free cloth.
My platform had some holes drilled for retainers to hold the rubber on the waterfall part of the deck. I filled with 2 part epoxy, taped on the bottom. my last platform had some chips that I filled with gel coat to satisfy my MCOCD.

[JMann]

Thanks for the response. I've already gone down the rabbit hole of sanding and cleaning so I'm stuck with that. Now I just need to figure out what to resurface it with before applying the padding. I think I will get some gel coat and touch up the chips.

Maybe I'll just try to wet sand it to bring the shine back to the exposed areas instead of clear coating it.