I've been doing some research on removing the carpet from my boats engine compartment and applying gel cote to the floor and bilge area. It current has the 90's splatter art through out the compartment and am looking to update and clean it up a bit. Has anyone done this before?

It is already gel coated. Simplest thing to do is paint over it using a quality paint like Awlgrip or a 2 part epoxy.

If you want it to look good and last, it needs to be prepped right.

We use Valspar's polyurethane 2 part on all of our bilges holds up great to fuel and oil's.

Any thoughts on doing the bilge in black? I thought that it could look nice against aluminum plate but I never see it.

I did my STV bilge in black gel with Duratech additive, looks great.