O’Day 28 gelcoat color

Nov 25, 2018
36
Oday 28 Wiscasset, ME
I have a 1985. I have done some repairs and touched up the gelcoat but have driven myself to distraction and wasted money trying to match the color. I am not looking for perfection - it is an old boat and I go for function over form, not looking to dump money into painting and beautifying as-new because I’ll never get that money back. So I would like just a “pretty close” match that I can use for touch-ups.

I have heard people mention RAL1013 Oyster White.Has anybody used? Any other suggestions? Not interested in mixing kits, swatches etc as I have tried all that. thanks.
 
Jul 5, 2011
754
Oday 28 Madison, CT
Tidal Sand is one color on my boat, but I think that may be for the non skid, not the hull. Rudi is the guy to ask this question.
 

dmax

.
Jul 29, 2018
1,245
Telstar 28 Buzzards Bay
I use this gelcoat in the cream color and add just a drop of brown pigment to darken it up a bit (a little pigment goes a long way). When polished up it's hard to find the repair.
 

jtm

.
Jun 14, 2004
313
Hunter 28.5 Dataw Island, SC
i had a O'day 23 way back in the 80s and the oday off white - off tan color is a tough color to match- especially after decades of UV beating on it. if you have a good fiberglass guy he should be able to get pretty close to the existing uv beaten shade.
 
Jun 11, 2004
1,826
Oday 31 Redondo Beach
Tidal Sand is one color on my boat, but I think that may be for the non skid, not the hull. Rudi is the guy to ask this question.
@odaydokay Did you use the tidal sand for your non skid? if so, was it a close match to the original?

Also, what brand of paint or gelcoat is the tidal sand you used.
Thanks.

ps: how's the traveler project going?
 
Jul 5, 2011
754
Oday 28 Madison, CT
I have a can of the tidal sand powder for a rainy day, but I never used it, so don't know how good the match is! I got it from a yard and the can is not marked so I can't tell you about a brand name.
Still no answer from Garhauer on my request for a proposal. Guess they are flat out or closed, hopefully not the latter.
 
Aug 17, 2010
344
Oday 35 Barrington
I use gelcoat with wax from Jamestown Distributors in the color "cream" it may require a little brown tint to get the match perfect.
 
  • Like
Likes: loneshark64

DYFLWD

.
Feb 20, 2016
54
Hunter Legend 35.5 Lake Texoma
I use this gelcoat in the cream color and add just a drop of brown pigment to darken it up a bit (a little pigment goes a long way). When polished up it's hard to find the repair.
Where do I find brown tint? thanks
 
Feb 21, 2013
4,638
Hunter 46 Point Richmond, CA
One option to color match your gelcoat is to go to the Spectrum website and look up their gelcoat color chart then buy a gelcoat patch kit, quart or gallon that matches. I just did that for a 37 year boat and matched the color almost perfectly for repairing gelcoat chips and scratches left by all the previous boat owners.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes: DYFLWD
Aug 17, 2010
344
Oday 35 Barrington
I used to use a gelcoat that Jamestown Distributors sold in the color "CREAM" (FIB-5703) which was an excellent match for my 1986 O'day 35. I had 90% of a fresh quart stored in my garage. I opened the can today, and found something that looked like jello in the can. I guess that you can't keep this stuff indefinitely. :banghead:

No problem, I figured, I'll just get another quart. Unfortunately, Jamestown Distributors has discontinued the product.:angry:

Has anyone found a color of EZ-Poxy, or any other paint / gelcoat, to match (or come reasonably close) to the off-white color of our O'day's?
20170816_184609.jpg
 
Aug 17, 2010
344
Oday 35 Barrington
Digging deeper into the issue with the gelcoat that I had; It seems that gelcoat has a shelf life of approximately a year. I know that the quart can that I had was over 5 years old. I also learned that if you store it in the freezer the shelf life can be greatly extended. (Yeah, like my wife is going to let that happen :rolleyes: - Although, she is cool with my keeping a couple of 3oz. [small] tubes of 4200/5200 in there.)

My current leading hope is that EZpoxy in "Hatteras Cream" is a close match.
 
Last edited:
Aug 17, 2010
344
Oday 35 Barrington
I have a piece of scrap that O'day kindly left in my hull. I believe that this was a cutout for a bow pulpit base in the inner hull liner. I found this piece of scrap when I rebedded the pulpit and added G10 backing plates.

I brought it to my local West Marine and did a color test with the scrap piece. Here is the closest EZ-poxy that I could find. The two colors shown are Hatteras Cream (at 2:00) and Sandtone (at 6:00). I chose Sandtone.

20251002_154725[1].jpg


I still wasn't happy with it, because it seemed to be a little bit dark to my eye. I therefore added some white tint from a gelcoat tinting kit that I have to a small sample of Sandtone and placed a drop of this mix next to the straight Sandtone (with my fingerprint in it).
20251002_165904[1].jpg


I think that I'm there...:beer:
 
  • Like
Likes: Richard19068
Jun 11, 2004
1,826
Oday 31 Redondo Beach
Thanks for doing the research.

I know I would have to play around with it for my eye (or my wife's eye) but when you get to scaling up could you possibly provide a rough ratio for converting "some white tint... to a small sample of Sandtone"?

Like one drop of white to a teaspoon of Sandtone? A quarter teaspoon to a cup?

Or am I asking too much?
 
Aug 17, 2010
344
Oday 35 Barrington
My pic above was taken shortly after I tried mixing and applying the paint. The paint was still wet at the time, and it is STILL tacky this morning!:rolleyes: I guess that the optimal color may be a mix of Sandtone and a "whiter" color...