spray painting gelcoat

[michaelf1]

I wish to touch-up some minor knocks in the blue coloured gelcoat of my Sadler 25. I have been advised by my local Interspray centre to fill with white gelcoat, then spray with the appropriate colour from a motor accessory shop. Is this good advice please?

 

[Topcat47]

No. I have been advised that the solvents in auto pints are incompatible with gelcoats by three independent paint specialists (independent of each other that is).

 

[RobWales]

Dont do it.............
Find out from the boat manufacturer if a colour matched gelcoat touch up filler is available?
Spray painting is a big NO NO

 

[johnalison]

I can't tell you where to get it, but I used to have a red boat and was sold some pigment powder to colour the gel. This worked fairly well, but I found it easiest to slop some of my mixture on the hull before adding hardener, check for colour match, & wipe off before the final fill, or adjust the colour.

 

[colingr]

You can get gel coat repair kits with colours to mix and match . I bought mine from Aladdins Cave. With care mixing the colours it works pretty well once polished.

 

[gjgm]

ok, here is the bad news... blue is extremely difficult to match.
Really its a job for a warm day when you have plenty of hours-it needs to be above 15 degrees anyway.
So depends how close you want to get. The little mix and match kits you get are very small unless you can live with any old blue!
A 500g tin of pigment will cost about £6 to give you a guide to industrial pricing and quantities. If its dark blue, you ll need a basic dark/navy blue, some red,black and white, maybe even yellow, and lots of practice! Ok this gives you enough to coat a tanker, but there you go. Then you ll need the resin and catalyst. If you can live with just the basic blue, then maybe £20 would give you about half a litre- or £16 for a tiny bottle from the chandlery.
CFS or something in Redruth can help you out and post you what you need.
Its not that easy applying it on vertical surfaces, by the way.
I did ask the makers of gelcoat filler/repair if its ok to add some pigment.. they said they didnt want to vouch for that as the it would probably imbalance the chemical mix.
On the previous blue hull I had, the local yard GRP guy said, no thanks, he didnt even want to start on a blue hull /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Steve_N]

I've seen large areas blended-in with blue spray paint - by the commissioning dealer of brand new Beneteaus (with moulding defects) on the way to their first owner..

Seemed to work OK, but I guess it needs a skilled operator.

 

[macd]

Try www.bluegee.co.uk/products.html
There's a colour card, although they don't work that well on screen.
If they can't supply the blue you want (the range is quite limited), a search of gel pigment stockists might help.
Have you tried the Sadler owner's club? Sometimes clubs such as that can point you in the right direction.

 

[oldsaltoz]

Gel coat repairs are a disaster unless the boat is new, you are adding new pigment and resin to match a faded finish.

The fact is that the old gel coat will continue to fade at a slower rate than the new coat you apply, it will look OK for a couple or more years depending how well the original colour match was, but will be visible later on.

One way to extend this is to collect the dust when sanding the area and use it again to ensure a longer lasting colour match, it will still fade at a different rate because of the new resin though, but will last longer.

Avagoodweekend......

 

[sparkie]

Interesting. I've used automotive acrylic on gelcoat both brushed and sprayed and never had any problems. My present pride and joy was sprayed with 2k acrylic by a v.reputable RNLI-approved boat yard before I bought it. I have some problems with the poor resistance to knocks and scratches, but no incompatabilities that I am aware of. There must be thousands of grp/glassfibre bodied kit cars out there that have been spray painted??

Sparkie

 

[Heckler]

Exactly!!

 

[jfkal]

Yeah I used the most cheapo automotive spray can from the DIY shop. Just sprayed it on (close to the waterline as well) and it lasted better than all the other expensive marine "awlgrip" or whatever stuff which happens to be used at other places on the boat away from the waterline even.

 

[ex-Gladys]

Amber our previous boat was sprayed in auto acrylic, and it was still in really good nick when she was sold in October 2006. I would guess she would need re doing probably next winter or the winter after (2008 or 2009)

 

[alan006]

I think the reason that you were recommended to fill with gelcoat and then spray is that for a DIY job it is the best compromise. To colour match the gel coat is a skilled job and would be a better solution, but takes a lot of practice IMHO.
Good luck