clear coat

need help guys....I have my boat all painted and am ready for the clear coat. I took it down to bare alum, used self etch prime and the used grey rustoleum paint w/ a brush. The finish looks great but i wanted to do a few coats of clear for extra protection. i used a spray can of clear coat gloss and it oranage peeled real bad, i then put on a 2nd coat to see if that would help but no luck...then i put a heavy coat on a test spot and it looked good the it started to eat the the grey paint real bad....the grey was cracking and coming up off the boat to where i could see the bare alum..( glad i did a test spot on the bottom)..i went to lowes and a paint vendor was there so i told him what all i have done..the olny thing he could come up w/ was to use spar varnish gloss on it for a clear coat doing many light coats. he did say with it being a boat and being in the water it will come off and maybe only last a year...what have y'all done for a good clear coat gloss finish that wont orange peel???

Pretty rare to come across anybody how has clear coated a boat here, as far as I know. Sorry to hear about the problems you're having

Maybe put a couple thin coats of clear like you did and wet sand the orange peel out.

i just went out and tested a spot on the side of the boat (this paint was from a spray can) and it looks pretty good. guess that it just doesnt want to work out on the bottom paint...

bulldog said:

Maybe put a couple thin coats of clear like you did and wet sand the orange peel out.

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I agree, you have to wet sand it to get the orange peel out. Buffing it after wet sanding it will make it like glass but there is alot of time involved in this as well, but will look awesome when done (if done correctly).