Cost to change colors

[Sagbay32]

I was looking for a ballpark, or guestimate on the cost of chaging the color of a boat. It is blue and I wanna go all white. It is a 22 anf would need to be completely painted or gel-coated.

What would be the best way?
What would be the cheapest way?

[MOP]

Personally I like paint, the big thing I find with paint it does not stain and requies alot less time to keep up. You do have to use good stuff, my guy who used to be the finish guy for Hustler is getting very partial to the new Awlgrip it is now easy to repair not like in the past and requires almost no up keep. With gel coat the surface will go dull after awhile. He is going to shoot my stipe red again and clear coat the boat this winter with Awlgrip. My gel is white 91 vintage and still sparkles, but getsd pucky brown in some creeks and gets launch stains. The Awgrip does away with that!

[Greg Maier]

What is the difference between paint, awlgrip, and gelcoat. Are thay just different types of paint? I'm really confused on this issue.

[rong]

Awlgrip is a very hard paint originally used for painting planes. Gelcoat is the original coating on your boat and is polyester based. I highly prefer gelcoat to paint as the first boat to rub off you without a rubber edge will chip the paint off. The repair is not real easy. Gelcoat to me holds up better and you can buff to your content any time it dulls. The clear coat sounds interesting but is another thing to keep up.The down side to gelcoat is application not being the easiest and the sanding involved to a good finish. Painting would be cheaper.

[HP 600SC]

I have owned over 43 boats and "rong is right"
Gel-Coat is the most forgiving and I think it looks like a boat should.
(disclaimer) Yes this topic has been hashed around
4 gazillion times here and it the old preferance thing. Thats just my opinion.....I could be wrong!

[Greg Maier]

What kind of buffer do you use on gelcoat. Do you have to use an orbital buffer like a car or can a high speed buffer be used?

[Sagbay32]

How about taking a shot at a price for re-gel coating?

[Brad Lyon]

Mike,

I talked to a guy at the Detroit boat show from a place up near Hale Michigan regarding cleaning up my boat. I told him that it really isn't in that bad of shape but it does need some attention.

He tried to talk me into gel coating my hull with some "left over" white gel coat that he had from doing a large boat. He said it would cost about $1,000 to $1,200 to do the hull of my 18. I have no idea if this is a fair price or not, all I know is I could not afford to do it!

Brad

[Boatman]

Re-gelcoating is very expensive, but the best way to go. My father and grandfather are both in the marine restoration business and have been for close to forty years now, and I'll tell you from seeing some of their work it is very time consuming to re-gelcoat. It's expensive, but from the labor standpoint worth every penny they charge. My father changed the color on his 86 z25 Donzi from gray hullsides to red with Imron. It has held up very well for 10 hard years. The imron is very tough. As someone else stated, the paint still looks brand new where the white gelcoat is very chalky and needs buffing yearly.

[HyperDonzi]

12 years old, red and black gel coat looks amazing when rubbed out (or mineral oil holds for 2 weeks). gelcoat is probably the best bet.