whats the difference.......

I hope someone better qualified replies but here goes.

Paint usually sets by evaporation of a thinner. Gelcoat sets by chemical reaction. there are also paints ("two-pack") that set this way. A paint finish is very thin. A gelcoat may be up to a few millimetres thick.

Gelcoat is used in building the hull and is the first thing applied to the mold. It does not set fully on the surface exposed to air so is not suitable for refurbishing, although there are gelcoats available that contain wax to allow them to set fully. Most refinishing is put off as long as possible and then done using paint. Unless the existing gelcoat is very bad, it is usual to polish it with a cutting agent such as Falecla G10 or G3 (look at their website) to restore the gloss. Small dings and scratches can be filled with gelcoat filler (which is not actually gelcoat.)

Best advice is to get hold of Don Casey's book "Hull and Deck Repair" published by Adlard Coles.

I hope this helps
 
Ken; Sailorman

Thanks for the replies that at least gives me an answer on the gelcoat issue. & somewhere to go on the paint system!

I am OK with falecla got some G3 already, along with 3m polish, all as recommended & I have used before. BUT am I really wasting my time with the existing gelcoat, I know its difficult without seing the problem, I can get a reasonable result (I think) on the hull, I did on a previouse boat here & that one was of a similar age, but it did have the advantage of being a Moody. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

But the topsides are dinged & stained, /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif even after repeated treatments & elbow grease, is there a topside paint system that will cover stains etc.

As she is in france I need to be able to do the work in sections of time, so I will take off the fittings etc. unstep the mast (do the mast boot, ariels, new wind system) sort out the windows. then do the repair work & paint.


as you can imagine in my job logistics/planning I can deal with ....just...but labour, mine, is a valuable comodity & I would like to get the project over by April 2006.

oh hum there goes the bank manager again........

poter.
 
You will find that all the linear polyurethanes from the major makers (eg International, Jotun, Awlgrip) as well as those from highly regarded smaller manufacturers (eg Altex here in Australasia) will perform very well if you go the paint way. It is also very cheaply repaired in comparison to gelcoat in the case of dings etc, but as with any it pays to use an easily matched colour eg white.

Our boat is nearly 9 years old now and was painted with polyurethane (Altex) when built and it is years away still from needing its first repaint. And that even though paints have a hard life here in NZ due to high UV levels in comparison to many places.

John
 
The problem with painting is that it tends to smooth ou the non skid surface on the deck. Therefor try agressive cleaning of the deck first then try to match the gelcoat colour with either gelcoat or Urethane paint to touch up the damage or consider just painting the smooth parts same colour as the antiskid parts. Straight white is great for colour m,atching but can be very glary in the sun. olewill
 
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Is there not a "touch up" issue with this paint though? As in, it can't be just touched up .... ??

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There are no issues at all - at least none when I touched up Blue Awlgrip last week!
As other respondants have stated - it is obviously much easier to touch up 2 pot paint than repair a gelcoat scratch.

Cheers
JOHN
 
Try TL Sea from the Poliglow website. Oxalic acid powder and very good on stains. Their Poliprep is good too. My hull was pretty grotty until I went this route, but if you can't colourmatch your filler it will show. I painted the hull on a previous boat and wasn't subsequently convinced it was the right solution.
 
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, but as with any it pays to use an easily matched colour eg white.


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I would take issue with you about that. White is no easier to match than other colours. It's a few years since I worked in the paint trade but there were hundreds of "whites" then; there will be many more now.
 
Hi Joe

In my experience the linear polyurethane colours produced by the main manufacturers stay in their range a very long time. So, for example, our own boat was painted 9 years ago with the manufacturer's main white offering. That same white remains available today and if I buy a can of that, from the same manufacturer, a repair is indistinguishable from the original.

Also, the manufacturer of the paint on our own boat makes a range of polyurethane paints for marine and industrial service. The same colour exists in a number of versions of mixes in their polyurethane range and of the two I have tried the white is consistent across them (using the second mix was because the boat was painted in a mix only available in large quantities, so not economic to buy it for minor repairs).

Also, polyurethane whites do not (should not?) yellow with age as some other paint types do eg epoxies.

Non white fades and does, of course, represent a matching problem even though the original colour remains available for purchase (our deck is not white, but is mostly covered in non-skid composition, not paint).

John
 
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