Gelcoat match

[barnaclebob]

Recently rescued my second E27. This one rubbed the dock for long enough to wear through the gelcoat in a spot, and I'd like to patch it in the least hideous way possible. The trick is to match the whitish hull. Need not be perfect, but closer match is better. Anybody tried this? Also would like to repaint the shear stripe. Anybody know that color blue?

This has probably been covered elsewhere, but I can't find it.

Thanks

 

[Christian Williams]

Been years since I made a botch of the hull-scratch job. Nowadays there are many good YouTube videos on the procedures, which remain pretty much fill, sand and then painstakingly mix a gelcoat color match by eye and experiment.

As for the blue color*, get an Awlgrip chip brochure (or other brand of marine paint). In painting my boot stripe, I found it easy to match the blue of the cove stripe using that. A computer monitor doesn't work for color--a proprietary, paper color chart is more accurate and can be held right up to the hull in various lights.

*I later found my boot stripe color in another thread: I chose Awlgrip Aristo Blue, which, if you can believe it, is an almost perfect match with my blue cove stripe.

 

[JSM]

Repainted my boot and cove stripes with Interlux Brightside Boottop and Striping enamel . As far as color I used Flag Blue Y4990 and painted both stripes to insure a match. Looks great and has held up well for the last five years.

Brightside Boottop & Striping Enamel Topside Paint | Interlux

Brightside® Boottop Enamel. Hard, high gloss one part polyurethane finish for striping and boottops.

www.interlux.com

 

[CSMcKillip]

Here is my run down on Gelcoat and what I did to match the color on one of my project boats. For the hull - White I assume you can use the White Gelcoat - not neutral.. Get a Gelcoat Color pack and get a pint of the gelcoat - mix the whole pint in a 1/2 gallon sealable mixing can / container. Mix colors slowly and take a q-tip and dab a spot on the hull until you get very close to a match - For WHITE you will never get an exact match but you can get really close. NO MEKP at this point just matching the hull color.

Prep the area, I sanded the area and if a deep gouge I champhered the hull to a 1/12 slope - you can use a 200 grit paper block to knock down the edges. Clean with Acetone everywhere. Get another pint can or smaller - clean and pour the gelcoat - enough for 1 application and measure it out - I use a paint cup with numbers Oz. add the required MEKP and apply the gelcoat. I worked in layers, about 6 - building the low areas up until I have about a 1/16" left for the final 2 coats. YES, Long process. You can also use filler but the gelcoat on these boats is about 1/8" thick. also - use non waxed, for the sealing of the gelcoat you will want PVA to spray over the repair. ... OK Final coats - I used a really small fine roller, I didnt get brush marks and the finish is very close to an orange peal with paint. Build the area out around the repair and up... You will sand it, compound, and wax. Once the final layer is on the boat spray the PVA all over the repair and walk away till the next day. Clean the PVA off with water, use a 1000 wet and dry to knock down the high spots, move to 2000 wet and dry, lightly compound the area and add a final wax....

If your boat is or shows chalking, then you will want to compound and wax the full boat after you see how shinny the repaired area is..

If you re-gelcoat the non skid then I highly suggest the Neutral Gelcoat, add some white Gelcoat as the base, Some (6-8 drops) Black and Brown and 1 yellow tend to get very close to the Ericson Non Skid color. Add some fine non skid sand to the mix.

The secrets to the color match is have the color in bulk, then use small amounts with the hardener building layers.

Hope this helps. I repaired a 4' section of crushed hull and deck using this method...with good results

 

[Christian Williams]

Good stuff!

 

[CSMcKillip]

I will add this for reference:
White Gelcoat with colors added will end up a pastel type color, so you add red and you get peptol bismal.
Neutral Gelcoat- you add red and you get red.

choose wisely

 

[debonAir]

Any ideas to start with for how many color drops per pint to match the Ericson "white" hull gel-coat? I imagine there is some brown and black in the mix but is that it? This Spring I'd like to rename my boat and will sand the transom down a bit to avoid seeing the shadow of the old name, and at the same time would like to fix up all the nicks around the bottom edge of the transom.. one of the down-sides of a reverse transom is that the sharp edge sticking back begs to get whacked.

There are a few spots in the cockpit where someone had done gel coat patches / repairs with plain white and that is far off from the factory color that's for sure.

 

[Christian Williams]

Many of us just paint the transom after repair. A paint chip card makes the hull tone easy to match, and close enough works fine because you never see a reverse transom and the hull from the same angle.

 

[CSMcKillip]

Well, I will say that is was White gelcoat, Ericson didn’t make a custom hull color, what you see now is oxidation and sun fade over years of being in the elements. Also, it’s gonna be the cheap stuff, I’m sure it came in 50 gallon drums and was the lowest cost of gelcoat on the market.

adding brown and black to a white gelcoat will have very mixed results.. again white base makes pastel colors..... you just have to spend some time like I stated above to get your mixture.

 

[CSMcKillip]

Also, from my experience I will never paint over gelcoat, if I do it’s a last resort.

 

[Christian Williams]

The gelcoat is sanded of course, and the result is proven.

 

[barnaclebob]

Thanks a ton gentlemen. I did paint the topsides of my last project, and Islander 28. Probably qualifies as last resort. Rolled and tipped with Total Boat wet edge. Looked sprayed until eyeballs within 18" or so.

Thanks again..