Gelcoat Colour Matching

[James4551]

I am going to carry out a few minor gelcoat repairs on the hull of a 1987 Beneteau First 325. Has anyone done a repair on a Beneteau of a similar vintage recently and got info about colouring the gelcoat to match. To my untrained eye there may be a tint of blue / grey in the original gelcoat ?

 

[billyfish]

I hope you get some replies on this I filled a few holes with a basic 2 pack filler much too white but I have no idea how to go about colour matching found 4 pots of stuff onboard when I took on ownership. Does it go off. Do you match it then add the hardener. Much easier with wood and paint I guess that's progress for you.

 

[Elessar]

I am going to carry out a few minor gelcoat repairs on the hull of a 1987 Beneteau First 325. Has anyone done a repair on a Beneteau of a similar vintage recently and got info about colouring the gelcoat to match. To my untrained eye there may be a tint of blue / grey in the original gelcoat ?

Cut and polish an area next to the repair. Mix your gel coat on that. Add tiny drops of colour until it matches. Use that for the repair and wipe the gel coat off the polished bit. It will be a slightly different colour all round the boat. Cloudy but bright day best.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Cut and polish an area next to the repair. Mix your gel coat on that. Add tiny drops of colour until it matches. Use that for the repair and wipe the gel coat off the polished bit. It will be a slightly different colour all round the boat. Cloudy but bright day best.

I mixed about 1/2 litre in a tin to match a repair i was doing. But as you say, the colour varies around the boat so for other repairs i put a little of my mixed colour in a pot and re-tint it as you say above.

 

[Poignard]

Cut and polish an area next to the repair. Mix your gel coat on that. Add tiny drops of colour until it matches. Use that for the repair and wipe the gel coat off the polished bit. It will be a slightly different colour all round the boat. Cloudy but bright day best.

What a useful tip. Thanks for that.

 

[Stemar]

Then you finally get the colour right, and over a few years, it changes. There's a lot to be said for sailing a MAB...

I'm reminded of a story about someone who spent a significant amount of money on a semi-bespoke boat. On the handover cruise, the owner of the builders put a big scratch on the perfection. "What did you do that for?" cried the new owner, aghast. "You'll do it yourself soon enough. and you'll be a lot less upset if it isn't the first scratch"

 

[alexincornwall]

If you can establish the RAL colour then you can probably buy the filler ready mixed. It won't be perfect as the gelcoat will have changed colour over the years but at least you'd have a good starting point.

 

[ganter]

 

[AntarcticPilot]

It's a case where you need the right tools. In my case, the right tool is someone who knows how to do it!

 

[Refueler]

Like car repairs ... the gel as in paint changes tint over time with sun etc. I have the typical gel repairs to scratches / small gashes etc. on my MAB of 1975 vintage. Tried hard to match - but after short while ... any light cast across them - there they are.

Seen many boats end up having hulls / cabin tops painted as a cure in the end. Something that my MAB may end up having next year or next. I have a tin of White Gel for my latest ... supposed to be same white - but I g'tee it will not be. Funny enough - for a quickie repair one year - I bought a tube of the common Plastic Padding from Halfords - was the best match out of tube ever to my white !

(Most Car Guys of yesteryeari knew who made a living out of paint jobs had 'tinters' to artificially age the paint colour for spraying .... was an art watching them gauge the tint to match the original. No idea if similar available for Gel today ....).

 

[James4551]

It's a case where you need the right tools. In my case, the right tool is someone who knows how to do it!

Sad but true

 

[James4551]

A local boat builder has given me a RAL code of 9016, Traffic White. Will give that a go and report back.

 

[Alfie168]

I remember taking a red car to the local car paint suppliers. I gave them the paint code and they came up with about 20 reds that had the same code. None of them were even close. That was 20 years ago or so.

No I can't get a match for my off white gel coat either. Wish I could so I could have a repair pot.

 

[Praxinoscope]

Cut and polish an area next to the repair. Mix your gel coat on that. Add tiny drops of colour until it matches. Use that for the repair and wipe the gel coat off the polished bit. It will be a slightly different colour all round the boat. Cloudy but bright day best.

Nice idea, the only problem I find is that there is a minor colour shift when the pigment is added to the 'topcoat', when I think I have got the right pigment colour match, I make up a small amount of pigment + topcoat (no hardener) to make a final check, I find this often requires a very small amount of one of the pigments to bring it back to a match.
Just finished repairing a load of gel scratches where the neighbouring boat on our moorings had managed to collide with mine during a spell of bad weather, will try to post some images of damage and repair later.

 

[Praxinoscope]

Further to #14 a couple of images of the repair.
There are still a couple of spots I'm not entirely happy with, but working out on the mooring between tides is not the recommended method of gel-coat repair, and they can wait until our lift-out in October.
40 year old gelcoat can be difficult to match because of fading and staining, but as can be seen a fairly good match can be obtained.
Image 1 shows initial damage, Image 2 shows an intermediate stage and Image 3 shows the 'repaired state'.
The lost boot top and anti-foul were just replaced with a couple of coats and not stripped back .

 

[Ink]

Cut and polish an area next to the repair. Mix your gel coat on that. Add tiny drops of colour until it matches. Use that for the repair and wipe the gel coat off the polished bit. It will be a slightly different colour all round the boat. Cloudy but bright day best.

I was told it also depended on the depth of gelcoat. A nice thick gelcoat repair gives a different match to one where the repair depth doesn't match the surrounding gelcoat.

Ink

 

[Refueler]

Further to #14 a couple of images of the repair.
There are still a couple of spots I'm not entirely happy with, but working out on the mooring between tides is not the recommended method of gel-coat repair, and they can wait until our lift-out in October.
40 year old gelcoat can be difficult to match because of fading and staining, but as can be seen a fairly good match can be obtained.
Image 1 shows initial damage, Image 2 shows an intermediate stage and Image 3 shows the 'repaired state'.
The lost boot top and anti-foul were just replaced with a couple of coats and not stripped back .
View attachment 117106 View attachment 117101 View attachment 117102

Blimey - I'd be more than happy with that !!