Paint or gel coat?

Feb 19, 2008
292
Catalina Capri 18 ann arbor
Hi All -

I have a feeling this topic has been covered, but I couldn't find anything by doing a search. Please forgive if you've answered this before.

My first crack at fiberglass repair (pun intended) went pretty well so far. I used a West System fiberglass boat repair kit - instructions were pretty straight forward.

Last instruction was "now paint your repair, or cover with gel coat." Paint seems easier, although it might be hard to carry the boat to the hardware store to match the color. How do you match color? should I try tintable gel coat instead?

Boat is a Catalina Capri 18. Repairs were smallish / medium / not too deep cracks.
 
Mar 20, 2015
3,094
C&C 30 Mk1 Winnipeg
Personally I'd use gelcoat.
Paint commits you to more future maintenance.

You can buy pre tinted gelcoat that matches your make and year of boat, like that from Spectrum:
https://spectrumcolor-com.3dcartstores.com/Gel-Coat_c_7.htm
One problem that can occur with that approach is that if your boat is old enough, and the gelcoat had faded, the colour matched Spectrum gelcoat won't match the faded gelcoat on your boat.

or

Take a sample to a local automotive paint store that knows how to tint gelcoat, and have them tint your gelcoat for you.

or

get the useful experience/fun/challenge (depends on your point of view) of matching the colour yourself.

plenty of videos and instructional info on how to manually tint gelcoat.


Edit:
Here's a link to a thread that i used as a hint/guide to tinting gelcoat on my own.
http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/015059.html
 
Last edited:
Feb 26, 2004
22,760
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
There are about five gazillion colors of white. It's pretty hard to try for an exact match. Get close enough and soon the sun will take care of any matching. I did some of the same work recently with Les Troyer's help (and his materials, too!:)). It was close, very close, and the month or so since has made all patches disappear. Use gel coat, not paint.
 
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Dec 27, 2012
587
Precision Precision 28 St Augustine
I searched for fiberglass supply shops and found a supplier that matches gelcoat. Then took the insert to a built in cooler to have them match the color. A better choice would of been to chip a piece of gelcoat from the hull and have them match that. The cooler isn’t exposed to sunlight so it didn’t have the bleached color effect that the outer areas get.
 
Nov 9, 2012
2,500
Oday 192 Lake Nockamixon
I have painted some of my repairs. It pretty much involved buying 6 likely cans of spray paint, making a test card on poster board, and using the closest color. Boat's 30 years old, it looks good enough, even though I tend towards perfectionism...
 
Feb 19, 2008
292
Catalina Capri 18 ann arbor
Thanks everyone -

I think I'll try the gelcoat. They sell a gelcoat kit with color match pods - my wife is a cake maker, it looks like tinting frosting - perhaps I'll get her to help (i have pretty poor color perception . . . shades of white is the worst!).
 
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Aug 16, 2016
38
Pacific Dolphin 24 Phoenix, Arizona
It's easy to match. Just a couple of drops of tint will make a big difference given the small amount of gelcoat required to cover a small repair. Clean and polish an area adjacent to the repair. BEFORE you add catalyst, tint a small amount ( maybe 1 oz, depending on the size of the repair) and put a dab on the cleaned area adjacent the repair and check your color match. Adjust accordingly. Because it's not catalyzed, the test spots will wipe off with acetone. Once you're happy with the color match add your catalyst. Small repairs you can brush on, larger you can use a Preval disposable sprayer. ( available at the big box stores) . I have an older cream colored hull so I order Oyster White Gelcoat and have Brown, Yellow and White tints to fine tune the color.