A long time ago I was turned on to the idea of buying a bottle of Sally Hanson's Hard As Nails fingernail clear coat and using it to paint over the eye in particular of any bait that might have 3D eyes prone to falling off from fish strikes. People swore that this would keep those eyes from falling off. My question is this, has anyone ever used it (or another similar use product) on the entire body of a bait before to help protect some of the paint jobs with durability issues? How did it work?

It works ok.  Devcon I I epoxy is what a lot of people use.

Way back 100s of years ago I did that at a auto body shop with a bunch of lures. It was no difference when pike pickerel & other toothy saltwater fish chomped on the lures. Balsa is a common wood for floating lures.  The dents & chips were severe with smaller Bluefish.  ONLY METAL lures are to be used  where toothy fish are. 

Protect the finish? Bone and clear are two of my best colors.

 

17 minutes ago, cyclops2 said:

ONLY METAL lures are to be used  where toothy fish are. 

Dyed surgical hoses my friend. A guy from NY/NJ should know this...  

Nope

The more it’s scarred the better

You are right. I have made brown Eels for saltwater .    I tried black auto & vacuum hose for fresh water eels.  Terrific if you like fast spinning bent tubes. Plenty of hits FROM the SIDES. I went back to normal.

I have used The Devcon epoxy for nearly 30 yrs, 2 ton, tip don’t use the Quick setting type. 

3 hours ago, Brett's_daddy said:

A long time ago I was turned on to the idea of buying a bottle of Sally Hanson's Hard As Nails fingernail clear coat and using it to paint over the eye in particular of any bait that might have 3D eyes prone to falling off from fish strikes. People swore that this would keep those eyes from falling off. My question is this, has anyone ever used it (or another similar use product) on the entire body of a bait before to help protect some of the paint jobs with durability issues? How did it work?

Might be good having the clear coat polish applied over a painted enamel jig head ?