What do y'all do for gelcoat repair?

[Brian S]

I had a horrible launching experience on Friday, and there's a 6" gash to show for it.

But, my boat is in the water, and I spent time on it, and it still floats, and that's good.

But Gel Coat Products wants me to buy 1 gallon of liquid gelcoat for more than $100, and they'll turn 1 quart of it into paste for another $20. They do have O'day colors on file.

I called Rudy at D&R, and they don't carry gelcoat anymore, due to post 9/11 shipping restrictions. He vaguely remembered a place in FL. So, I found this place called Mini-Craft in FL, http://minicraft.com, and they also have some O'day colors, but they don't know which is which, aaaaaaaand, they charge $125 FOR A PINT of paste!

Yikes!

Should I attempt to tint myself? Take of the lazarette cover and take to a paint store and have them scan and give me their pigment formula and try to recreate that from red, blue, yellow, black pigments?

Or just give up and have some local place do it? (and probably wait until after fall pull-out for that, due to unstepping the mast and all that...)

Thanks for the advice and support, I almost puked when I heard the scraping and saw the results...

Brian

 

[Ward H]

Brian, sorry to hear that. I'm kinda glad I had my first few experances docking my O'day last fall before it was pulled for the winter. This weekend I was able to buff out the scratches from those first couple of outings. To be fair, the PO also put his share of scratches in the boat on the day he tried to move it for a haul out for my inspection. I did get a good discount on the price that day.
Anyway, how bad is the gash? Is it through the gelcoat? I had some deep scratches that were almost but not through the gelcoat. The deepest ones I sanded with 220, 400, 600, 1000 and 1500 grits using water spray to lubricate and my orbital sander.
I got the deepest down about half way. Then I buffed them real good. I had read in Main Sails article on buffing and polishing that if you round off the sharp edge of a scratch it will blend in and not be as visible.
He was right. Even my worst scratches are not easily seen after the buffing.

 

[Brian S]

Ward, it's through the gelcoat. A friend looked at it and thought there was blue paint in it. I was like, "Dude, that's laminate resin. It's deep!" Or something.

I think what I'll do is take the fuel compartment hatch to a Sherwin Williams, and ask them to scan it for the color formula, and using a gelcoat repair kit, try to mix as close to that as I can. Then, I'll mix a batch without catalyst, and see how it looks. If it's close, I'll catalyze it, put it on, and go from there...

I thought about asking my club if someone knows a good fiberglass guy, but then I'd pretty much have to pull, unstep, and tow to the shop. Might as well do my best shot for that much aggravation...

Brian

 

[Ward H]

Brian, if the drawing in your avatar is your boat, with the blue boot and waterline stripe, it may well have blue gelcoat under the white. Mine appears to.
I have a couple of deeper chips on the side that have blue showing. Looks like the same blue as the two stripes. Gave me the impression they sprayed the white with the stripes taped off, then sprayed the blue for the stripes and let it overspray the white. The few white scratches on the blue stripes were transfer from whatever caused the scratch. I was able tp scrap out the white from the scratch.

Besure to compound the hatch cover before you take it for color check. It will change color a bit. I tried filling a scratch with a buff colored gelcoat repair. It looked like a good match until I sanded and buffed. Now it stands out as a much lighter color.

It does sound like a good winter project.

 

[Brian S]

Ward, you're saying the right kinds of things, stuff like "It's fine" and "Wait until winter"

I have a few scratches in my blue sheer stripe, and they are light, and didn't seem to get any darker as I tried to compound them. Which made me think they sprayed the blue first, then the cream, but perhaps they did do the cream first, then the blue, in which case I'm seeing blue through the scratches. That really makes more sense, because resin is usually a pinkish color...

Thanks,
Brian

 

[wetass]

I wouldn't trust the match if they are using their "on-file" color. I assume your talking to the GCP here in Seattle. If so, they are really good at matching the color IF you provide them with a sample. I have 3 color matches on file with them for my current boat alone - Deck, topsides, and interior that are perfect for my boat. But, I would bet none of them would match as well to another CS36.

Factory gel coat generally varies a bit from batch to batch, so taking an on-file match from someone else's boat likely won't match yours exactly. Also, its likely they sprayed the hull separately from the deck, so those colors are likely slightly different above and below the sheer (hence why I have 2 exterior matches).

If you need perfect - send them a sample, which means taking a hole saw to your boat - OUCH - BTDT three times on this boat alone ;-( But, you get an absolute perfect color match.

If you need good enough - your color matching may be almost as good as their "on-file" color.

Also, you may want to try to find a hot tub or bath tub repair outfit near you - Often enough, they can match gelcoat too.

 

[wetass]

Oh, BTW - Hatches aren't guaranteed to be a good color match - They may also get sprayed at a different time and you can't tell just by holding them up against your hull to see if they look the same. I tried that once and ended up throwing away $150 of gelcoat.

 

[Brian S]

Dangit, wetass, you're NOT saying the right kind of things!

Brian

 

[sandpiper10471]

You can match the gelcoat. After adding pigment and getting close, put a dab, uncatalyzed, on a buffed out piece of the wanted colour. Then pour a tad of acetone onto it. This will give you the cured and buffed colour. It is also easier to tell what colours to add. And even if you get it perfect, in a year's time it will likely have changed. So the alternative is to go to the paint shop with a sample and have them make up some paint. Then prep the area damaged and shoot on the paint. Only you will know as long as you did a good prep job.

 

[sandpiper10471]

BTW, I do a lot of gelcoat repairs every year. Sometimes I get the colour right in about 15 minutes. Other times it might take as much as two hours. That is when it really sucks to be the customer!