Don't replace it - Refinish it! Rust-Oleum Specialty Tub & Tile Refreshing Kit acts and looks like porcelain and ceramic. Apply to ceramic, porcelain or fiberglass. Epoxy Acrylic Formula just like the professionals use. PRODUCT FEATURES: -Fast-drying -Indoor/Outdoor -Durable, corrosion-resistant Pre-treat tub with a household cleaner rather than muriatic acid.

No acid etching required
Can be completed in a half of a day
Durable and washable
Self leveling
This item is not for sale in Catalina Island

Lessons Learned (2.0)

After reading some initial reviews and seeing that most were positive, I went and ordered the kit for my tub. After a lot of frustrating trial and error, I'm finally done and wanted to share some lessons learned.

- Do not use a conventional roller. The roller WILL leave fibers in your finish. I resorted to using a sander to smooth out the sags and fibers from the roller - it's like sanding chalk after it dries. Some have mentioned that foam rollers will dissolve in the paint. I used a 4" brush for the last 2 coats.
- A good respirator and active ventilation is mandatory. I used the MSA 817663 Multi-Purpose Respirator sold here - seals well and you can hardly smell the fumes.
- Get twice the paint you think you will need, if you have a dark colored tub. I was able to squeeze 3 coats out of 1 box to cover the inside and front side of my tub. My pink tub needed 3 coats to hide the original color, but I put 4 on for good measure.
- Don't forget to paint the farthest sections of the tub first. You don't want to lean over wet paint.
- Don't use a heavy hand on the second coat. I started my second coat about 2-3 hours after the first and noticed thin spots where the first coat started to dissolve.
- Finding the wet edge and spots you missed is really hard in an all white tub... I used a flashlight at a steep angle to differentiate these areas.
- Resist the urge to re-do sections that you just painted and have started to dry. The paint dries quickly and doing so will leave brush marks that won't go away. Self leveling is minimal.
- Don't re-use a mixing container that has dried paint in it. Dried paint will flake off and end up in your finish.
- Get some cardboard or dense foam to lay on the floor - your knees will thank you.

Incidentally, I would give the final finish a C for appearance. In hindsight, I should have opted to patch the large dings in the original porcelain and be done with it.

Great Results! (5.0)

I just used this kit to redo an old, disgusting sink and the results are great! I heard that doing several very thin coats would make it look nice at the end so that is what I did. Do a lot of thin coats and it looks great! It is important to put the prep work in as well. I cleaned the sink with the products the package recommends (bleach, lime-away) and cleaned and sanded for almost a hr and a half. I decided to do the sink to see if it looked good enough to do the old, nasty tub as well. It looks great and I will def use this product again! Very happy (and surprised) with the results!

Looks good so far (4.0)

I can't comment on durability yet, which is probably most important. It ended up looking nice, new, and fresh. It did seem to take on an even glossier sheen after a couple days of curing. Potentially helpful notes:

- I used 3 kits to do 2-3 coats on a fiberglass tub/shower surround...of course surface prep is vital
- odor cannot be underestimated, I used a mask and goggles (my eyes sting even with latex), I would be sure I knew the best strategy for ventilation before I started
- per instructions, cleanup with lacquer thinner...worked well for brushes between coats at least
- the foam roller I started with fell apart, switched to "good" woven roller and "good" brushes
- paint starts out watery but thickens to a more usuable consistency fairly quickly....rather quickly when I poured it into a pan for roller...think the job through and have everything ready, maybe including backup stuff too

Totally Restores (4.0)

This product does exactly as advertised. It complete covered my pea green shower with a glossy white coat and the finish seems very durable. I had to apply three coats (2 kits) to get good coverage over the pretty dark orignal color but the third coat made such a huge difference I'm glad I did. I rolled the first 2 coats on with a foam roller which by the end of the application was disintigrating from the paint. The third layer I brushed on with much more success. The self leveling property worked very well as no brush strokes can be seen.

Warning: The fumes were so strong that I didn't even sleep in the bedroom next to the bathroom the night I painted the shower. Even with the window open and a fan the smell lingered for over a day. Definitely wear a respirator.

Hard to get perfect results, but looks OK and does seem to hold up (4.0)

Prep: I did not sand, but I did clean with muriatic acid (diluted about 3:1) and some green scrubbie pads first. That seemed to be enough to give the paint a good surface to stick to. Use a less noxious modified muriatic acid (available at any home center). The fumes aren't as bad and it doesn't burn if you get it on your skin as the regular stuff will. It is really important if you have silicone anywhere that you completely remove it. Use something like SILICONE CAULK RMVR 8OZ to remove any residue left behind after scraping with a razor blade. I had tons of silicone to remove because I have shower doors. I missed a bit and sure enough the paint that was in that area disappeared.

Application: Rollers seem to work fine and it is what they recommend. Use caution with foam rollers. The ones I used (yellow foam rollers from the home center... labeled "safe for all paints") would break down and fall apart from this paint, leaving pieces of foam in the paint. Major problem. I switched to this Purdy 662091 White Dove Deluxe Dralon Paint Roller Cover 9-by-1/4-Inch and it survived the paint OK. Another caution: you will probably not be able to clean anything you use to apply this paint, even with solvents. So use cheap (non-foam) brushes for places you can't get in with a roller. Yet another caution: buy a respirator (the kind with the screw on carbon filters) and use it. They sell them right here on Amazon for less than $30. A small price to pay to not have to breathe in the toxic fumes from the paint (or the acid if you use it to clean). A painter's mask isn't going to do anything since the fumes will go right through it.

Coverage: I used 3 packages for a standard size fiberglass tub and shower surround. I had enough left over to do a sink. I would recommend not mixing all of the last can (you would probably only need half) so you have something to mix small batches to do touchups with. Once you mix it, it will get hard even if sealed up.

Waiting Time: Definitely wait the 3+ days they recommend on the package. I waited a week since I had other stuff to do in the bathroom anyway.

Results: Not perfect but OK. I got some runs here and there but they aren't all that easy to see if you aren't looking at them. They are really hard to avoid given you are working on a vertical surface with lots of compound curves. The working time of the paint is also pretty short so you don't have much time to fix them without making a mess. It seems to hold up very well to the daily exposure to hot water, which makes all the hassle worthwhile. I had a lot of junk left in the paint from my disintegrating foam roller covers but those tiny mostly invisible bumps were fairly easy to remove with a razor blade, and you don't feel them after you do that. I painted over some metal (which is not recommended) because I didn't want to remove the drain assembly from the tub and it seems to be holding up just fine even there after a few months of use.