Custom/Hybrid Can gelcoat be sprayed, and look decent without sanding and polishing?

[jeastes1]

I am in the process of redoing the the paint and turf on my superfreak, the bottom was painted and of course looks terrible! I wish it would have been left in the black primer that I believe, it originally came with. Thing is I dont really want to try and strip the paint and all the grey primer off the bottom. I know gelcoat, when sprayed on exterior leaves a dull orange peel look, but I was reading about, adding clear duratec to the gelcoat to thin it and it will a smoother finish? Any tips or feedback would be greatly apreciated!

 

[#ZERO]

You can add styrene monomer to thin out the gel coat up to 10% mixture for repair applications and use a down feed spay gun with a 1.6mm size tip or larger for the best results.

 

[jeastes1]

You have done this? would you recomend doing it? how did it look? I am going for function and durability over looks really, also could it be painted over in short period of time? I would like to gel the whole bottom then mask off most of it but still paint the sides and front, the way that I think it should have been done in the first place!

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Duratec is the only way to go spraying something that big, you mix it in 50/50 with the last coat only, it cuts sanding time at least by half , probably more and will actually give it some sheen.

Now for the bad news, all that other crap is going to have to come off or the gelcoat is never going to stay on the boat.

Gelcoat cure time is totally dependent on the amount of hardener used and the ambient temperature, the lower the temperature the more hardener you need to use.;

 

[jeastes1]

So do you think I could get away without wet sand and polish being on the bottom? Will I have to worry about lifting or wrinkling when painting over some areas? Will gelcoat fill in any imperfections ,more so than primer surfacer. again I am going for more durability than aesthetics on the bottom, I hate seeing grey primer everywhere there is a scratch! What brand gelcoat should I use?

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Gelcoat will fill in the entire world if you spray enough of it, unless you a spraying master you will end up doing some sanding. if you don't 80 grit the whole thing you will definatly have problems with the gelcoat lifting and separating, if you don't want to remove the paint spray it heavy with Duratec polyester primer then either spray the gelcoat while the primer is still tacky or wait till it cures and scuff it with 80 grit, then spray the gelcoat.

 

[jeastes1]

Thanks for the tips! What I mean by wrinkle or lift is should I avoid gelling areas that will later be painted with normal solvent based color and clear? like if you were to paint over say enamel if it hasn't cured out for like over a year, it will wrinkle when you spray anything other than enamel back over it.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

That shouldn't be a problem if you use a Duratec clear, if you use gelcoat with a wax additive it will be a problem.

 

[jeastes1]

That shouldn't be a problem if you use a Duratec clear, if you use gelcoat with a wax additive it will be a problem.

Awesome, thats what I was hopeing to hear, thanks for the input!

 

[lowe0515]

Ive sprayed gel in my engine bay and bottom. cut it 20% with acitone dont mix up more then you can spray in 3-4 min. your prep job will be the key here, good luck.

 

[madness maker]

i sprayed black gelcoat on the bottom of my new freak build a couple months ago,cured to a satin black, very happy with it, i used gelcoat with wax built in for curing,sprayed it on with no thinning, it was about 80 deg outside temp and with a 2.0mm tip on the $27 china hvlp spray gun i used. :smile: (so happy with it that i sprayed the bottom of my girls glass freak the same way a few weeks later, the low drag coefficient is a real back saver when pulling it in and out of the water on the sand) some pics of gel on bottom of my freak.

 

[jeastes1]

Sweet thats about exactly what I had in mind for mine, thanks for the pictures. I have mine all stripped down now, all the turf off, mine is carbon pro -4.3, I have been considering reinforcing the sides as well while I have it all apart, just because I have been out on some pretty large Lake MI. Surf, but at the same time not sure if it really needs it, not too worried about weight, as it was under 250# RTR

 

[luker]

Arnt super freaks epoxy layup ?

 

[jeastes1]

Arnt super freaks epoxy layup ?

Yes they are, but mine is a flatwater lighter weight layup.

 

[BrightE's]

When spraying the bottom of the hull its best to do a few layers correct? With the final layer in some combination of wax for sanding purposes?

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Unless you have a dump gun there is no choice except to do it in a few layers as you can only shoot so much gelcoat in 15 minutes before it kicks off in the gun.

 

[jeastes1]

what is the difference in tooling and normal gelcoat just the wax additive?

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Tolling gelcoat is for molds, its super hard, its not what you want

 

[sportfish258]

I thought epoxy and polyester gel coat were a bad mix .

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Really someone should have told me this when I was repairing $80,000 Ski Nautiques, don't believe everything you read on the interwebs