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Readily available at any good paint store, custom auto shop or boat shop, usually cheaper at the paint store. It comes as a clear topcoat and in colors. The colors can be tinted or mixed, but use ONLY the colorants recommended by your supplier for your product.

It's not rocket science, but careful surface preparation and exactly following instructions is a must. Your vendor or public library normally has DIY booklets with illustrations and tips.

When even a small amount of the clear "catalyst" is mixed into each batch, the clock starts and can't be stopped, so mix small batches until you get the hang of it or risk owning a freeform art object complete with imbedded paintbrush.

Also, be sure to buy or borrow a quality nose-mouth respirator (under $50 with appropriate screw-on replaceable cannisters). Both the dust from sanding and fumes while applying should be carefully avoided. A box fan blowing from behind you is good.

Usual procedure is to repair all problem areas with desired color, sand again lightly, then add a clear coat of gelcoat for a glass-like finish.

Last word: study directions very carefully regarding how much to mix at a time and how much "catalyst" activator to add. This depends a lot on the day's temperature, humidity and the temperature of the spa's surface when applied.

Repair Fiberglass Spa

Supplies are everywhere. Did you mention your spa is made out of what material, do you know?

Since boats are more plentiful than spa's or pools and boaters seem to make lots of repairs , you will find many many articles at the big box boat stores such as boatus or west marine online regarding basic fiberglass repairs.

But bonding to a particular surface other than fiberglass will be your task at hand of course.

Fiberglass hot tub restoration requires swimming pool gelcoat as opposed to marine or automobile gelcoat, or the cheap two part epoxy sold at paint stores. Swimming pool gelcoat was used when the hot tub was manufactured and is required due to the chemically treated water found in most hot tubs.

Swimming pool gelcoat, also known as fiberglass pool paint, can be purchased online and shipped directly to your home. Swimming pool gelcoat is not available as a clear coat because it would turn yellow rather quickly however, every color you can imagine is available.

The "glass like finish" referred to above can only be accomplished by using acrylic, and acrylic will not laminate to a hot tub originally finished with gelcoat. nor will gelcoat laminate to a hot tub originally finished with acrylic.

Finally, complete instructions are available at the online vendor and these instructions are specifically written for hot tubs and swimming pools.

The FaceApp mobile application does present some serious privacy concerns, based on a reading of its terms and conditions.

However, it would be inaccurate to say that the app steals “all of your data,” or that it gives its developer permanent access to all of your photos. It’s also inaccurate to say that the app gives user data to “the Russians,” but we’ll take a closer look at that question in a second—in short, the answer is a bit complicated.

First, let’s review the app’s terms of service agreement, which states that:

That sounds slightly terrifying, and when FaceApp’s age filter went viral, many social media users shared screenshots and articles pointing out the privacy issues in the app’s terms of service.

Those users also pointed out that FaceApp’s research and development team is located in Russia—a frightening consideration for many Americans, given the countries’ dicey relationship. However, there is not currently any evidence that FaceApp’s team is coordinating with the Russian government.

FaceApp responded to users’ concerns in a statement issued to TechCrunch and other publications.

“All FaceApp features are available without logging in, and you can log in only from the settings screen. As a result, 99% of users don’t log in; therefore, we don’t have access to any data that could identify a person.”

The company also explained that it performs photo processing in the cloud (in this context, “the cloud" means that they transfer data over the internet for processing at an offsite server), and that the app only uploads photos that users select for editing. The company doesn’t share or sell the photos to any third parties, and they are eventually deleted, they wrote.

Of course, that’s what a company would say if they were harvesting data for nefarious purposes, so in these types of situations, it’s a good idea to look for a knowledgeable third party.

David Carroll, a media design professor who gained fame when he launched a legal case against Cambridge Analytica during their scandal, believes that any data transferred to FaceApp could be taken by the Russian government.

“If data is stored in Russia, the Russian government has jurisdiction over it,” Carroll told PBS. “It is unimaginable that a tech company could exist in Russia and not have some kind of subservience to the [Russian security service] FSB.”

In the company’s statement to TechCrunch, they wrote that “even though the core R&D team is located in Russia, the user data is not transferred to Russia.” Essentially, they’re saying the images (and the processed images that make you look like an old person) are stored outside of Russia on cloud servers owned by Google and Apple. Therefore, the app’s development team doesn’t have direct access to those images.

Of course, we’re taking FaceApp’s word on that. There’s still a chance that using a Russian-based app exposes your data to the country’s security services. But as Ashley Carman noted in a piece for The Verge, other apps based in China or even the United States could have the same type of privacy concerns.

What if you’re not worried about Russia—what if you just want to make sure that your data is safe from unauthorized access?

That’s also somewhat tricky. Because FaceApp is based in Russia, American users don’t have much legal recourse if they want to press charges against them. However, the app’s development team says that they’ll delete stored data at the user’s request.

“We accept requests from users for removing all their data from our servers,” the company wrote. “Our support team is currently overloaded, but these requests have our priority. For the fastest processing, we recommend sending the requests from the FaceApp mobile app using “Settings->Support->Report a bug” with the word “privacy” in the subject line. We are working on the better [user interface] for that.”

The controversy over FaceApp does highlight an important point: If you’re concerned about privacy, always make sure to read the terms and conditions before signing up for something—even if it’s a fun, harmless-looking app.