Long story short- I built a great freedom 17 4 yrs ago. I've used it a lot- been to bwca 6 times and countless other trips to local lakes.

It's gotten a lot of scratches and bumps. I planned to refinish this year anyways, but I happened to see a new stripper with a perfect mirror finish and thought "dang, why can't mine look like that"

The original build was my first time working with epoxy and I'm soooo much better now with it- So was confident I could improve the epoxy job. It wasn't bad, but it had the typical waves / runs that weren't 100% sanded out.

I put about 10-20 hrs into sanding and sanding and sanding and reapplyin new epoxy and sanding and sanding until I got it perfect. Then went with a high gloss spar urethane instead of varnish. I then buffed it with a little auto wax- I know this is controversial but I don't reallly see the downside as it will be years before another refinish and will likely wear off.

The depth of the countours really stand out now and I finally got the see-yourself-reflection shine I was looking for!

Looks absolutely beautiful!!