James R. Lunsford wrote:
I want to refinish my bathtub and I've seen diy kits on the web, and I'm
wondering if anyone has used one and has any advice as to which ones are
better and/or advice on the job itself.

A couple of years ago while in a no-money funk, I used a DIY kit from
the local Home Depot. My bathtub had a large black stripe going down
the middle of it, which was real attractive.

I spent a lot of time prepping the tub, which involved scraping out old
caulk and using these brillo-pad looking things to scratch the tub and
made sure it was as clean as possible (don't recall what I used for
cleaning, might have been TSP). It took a lot of work to do that, but
I didn't have the funds to hire someone. I then applied the
refinisher, which was the easiest part of the whole process. My only
regret is that I didn't use a better brush, as any bristles that came
out of the brush were stuck in the gooey finish and had to be removed
with tweezers, as rebrushing over the area would leave streaks. Also,
it wasn't until I was almost done that I got pretty good at painting
the refinisher on without leaving streaks. I might also add that you
won't see imperfections or shadows from the streaks unless you shine a
light directly into the tub.

Overall, we're happy with it. It has lasted several years. I'm sure
it will need another coat eventually, but for the time being it looks
pretty good, and even with shining a light directly on it, you can't
see that lovely black streak. Hope this info is of some use to you.