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View Full Version : Paint vs Original Gel Coat



Craig
04-28-2000, 11:44 AM
Noticed some of the comments about re-painting vs saving (improving) original gel coat. Is there a way to tell when the original gel coat is too far gone to work with? Also, whats a good process to improve old dull gel coat if you decide to go that route?

CDMA
04-28-2000, 02:23 PM
Yes. My full time summer job is to compound boats and gelcoat. I have seen a lot and yes you usually can get the gloss back but it does not commonly last even under a couple of good paste wax coats. I like original gelcoat but there is a time and place for paint and I have had that wiht my boat. Where gelcoat is really the worst is when it sprider crackes over time. This is more common with the old boats where the gelcoat is thicker a la Donzis.

Chris

BillG
04-28-2000, 02:42 PM
what primer did you use over tiny spider cracks in the gel coat?

Stan
04-28-2000, 04:45 PM
I had the gelcoat buffed out on my 1990 2+3
red/white. It was very dull and faded with that chalky appearance. ( I will post pic's soon, I can also email you the pics directally ) The boat came out looking like new !! I now keep a few coats of wax on and keep my fingers crossed.
The product is called "Rolite". It was origionally only available to the trade, but now can be bought by the public. I believe L&L Marine supplies in Anaheim Calif has it for sale. 714-630-5831

Good Luck,

Stan

CDMA
04-28-2000, 06:46 PM
I was lucky enough to not have many spider cracks. Depending on the size I would either high fill prime over them or grind them out with the dremel and fill them with West system and 410 Microlight.

Chris