I have a 2001 Hunter 340 and the underside of the helmsman seat is showing wear and tear. It is the seat that folds down aft to become an entry way to the boat from the stern. The seating side of the fiberglass is in good condition, but the underside that people walk on entering the boat is rough. Can I just apply gel coat to make it presentable again?
Gel coat on underside of helmsman seat.
- Thread starter Robert H. Wood
- Start date
Why ask if you did that? Gel won’t adhere to paint so unless you are sure the seat bottom is not paint, , you are in for a surprise. Good luck!
For what it's worth seeing as you have already ordered the gel coat, the colour for gel coat in that era (mine is a 1999) of decks and hulls is 100% pure white, out of the can gel coat. I would think much cheaper than custom coloured mixed gel coat. My deck is covered with spider crack repairs and they are invisible compared to the original gel coat.
If it's gel coat, I would think it's a one part mixture i.e. catalyst and resin in the ratio of approx. 0.5 - 1.0% The catalyst does not add anything to the mix, it just kicks the resin to makje it set.
A two part mixture will be somewhere in the neighbourhood of a 50 - 50% mix of resin and hardener.
The hardest part will be getting a good finish on the gelcoat. Unlike paint gelcoat doesn’t really have any self leveling properties, so when brushed or rolled on you’re likely to have a texture. Spraying is better if you have a way to do that. Either way you’ll need to wet sand an polish to get a good finish.
I disagree. Gelcoat is used in most OEM decks and holds up for decades.
If anyone knows of a thinner for gel coat (even a few %) please put your hand up. Better still, just tell us.
Every FG surface which was is not outwardly visible in my 1999 H-310 direct from the factory has this low gloss extremely hard material (looks like thinned out gel coat) which is good enough for most hidden areas of FG.
My photo is too big to attach and I don’t know how to reduce it. However, the gel coat turned out really well. I used a foam roller and put it on nice and thick. It cured really well and looks brand new. Thanks for all the advice.
For what it’s worth, the custom Spectrum gel coat was much whiter than the original and it cost $230 a quart.