TotalBoat Gleam Marine Spar Varnish

Was a few days later receiving than expected delivery date. No instructions on can, but there is some online. Brush product on, and it does show brush strokes. Used lacquer thinner. Thinned 50/50. Overall I am very happy with this product, way better than other products out there. Used to refinish seats in Lund boat. Looks good and seems to protect wood well. Would look great if I sprayed it.

I used this on a couple live edge pine slabs for my dock bar. The stuff looks great & dried quickly for spar varnish. I brushed on 3 coats. It looked great, but a few hours later I notice one area w/brush marks & a couple that had almost a puddle, like it was too much in those areas. It seemed nice & dry so I took some sand paper & sanded those areas. All of those sanded areas sanded well. The product “talc-ed” up while sanding & didn’t load up the sandpaper with sticky fresh paint sometimes does. When paint is dry it dusts/talcs, if it’s not dry enough it’s gummy. This sanded well within 6 hours @ 90 degrees. Anyways, I wanted to apply another coat that evening so I brushed it on. An hour later I checked on it & was pissed to find everywhere I sanded it, the last coat wrinkled. Apparently, sanding the outer surface opened up the inner layer, which wasn’t quite as dry. The application of more varnish confused the inner that wasn’t as cured/dried & attacked it, wrinkling it. So I let it set for 24 hours, & then really sanded all the wrinkled areas with a DA sander w/150G, then 320G on the entire surface. Then I gave up on the brushing method & since I’ve got some nice spray guns from my auto body biz, I sprayed. Apllied more coats of Gleam, waiting a couple hours in between @ 95 degrees. Couldn’t be happier with the results. I don’t know why I tried brushing it. You’ve got so much more control with the gun. You do have to reduce it about 10-20% with xylene, which in California is thought to find, however Klean Strip makes a replacement product called Painters Solvent. It worked great.

Not used on a boat. I used it to on a table top (an outdoor grade 3/4" sheet of plywood) that had been previously covered with several coats of spar varnish, but needed to be coated again. This product turned out MUCH BETTER than expected! All needed was a pint, but the smallest size I could find locally was a quart; I would have had to throw half of it away. The varnish dried quickly and I was able to apply 3 coats in a day, following the instructions. Previous coatings took several hours to dry and I could only apply one coat per day. It spread easily (much better than previous coatings) and the results looked great. On the downside, the cost of a pint was only slightly lower than the quart sizes I could find locally. But I am so pleased with this product that I consider it well worth the extra cost; besides, it included free shipping and the packaging was amazingly well done.

I’m so impressed with Gleam! I used it to finish our front door and I wanted a product that’s easy to apply, quick to dry, and looks great. I followed the instructions that in order to get a good satin finish, you start with gloss and add satin at the end. I applied the first coat thinned with the TB thinner and did a flood coat with gloss. I applied the finish with a foam roller and tipped it off with a foam brush. The door got 6 coats of gloss (1.5 cans) which made it so reflective I could see my face in it! I then scuff sanded, cleaned, and applied 2 coats of satin which gave me a great sheen. I was impressed with how smooth it went on. It flattens out nicely, and was easy to apply.

I purchased both the gloss and satin versions of this same varnish. I use in on teak in a marine environment. I am very pleased with it as it does not require thinning and applies very well. I used a foam brush, and I was very pleased with the results. You do not have to sand between coats, but I did use a scrub pad between coats. I poured out only what I needed for each coat. I did not experience any issues with runs or other defects. I do wish that satin version had a bit less gloss than it does. I'm very pleased, and both products will be my go-to varnishes in the future.