Repairing Gelcoat on campers
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The shop I have been working at has been getting alot of little jobs from the local camper outlet here in town for small repairs, repairing small cracks, painting small areas etc and I have been tasked to find out more about spotting in Gelcoat. Didnt know if anyone had any experience in this area. I have watched a few videos on you tube and it didnt look like that big of a deal but wanted to see if anyone here had any real world experience in this. Any material preference, suppliers etc and any tips on colormatching. I didnt know if you could call someone with the year and make of a certain camper, (maybe even a serial number or vin) and order the gelcoat in a certain color or what. Thanks in advance.
Chuck
I’ve done a little bit with gel coat. Never a spot repair, however. Just resprayed the entire part.
I am curious if you would be able to match the colour/gloss properly, though.
hey chuck, i come from a pretty extensive marine background working for one of the largest yacht manufacturers in the world so i have seen my share of fiberglass and gelcoat….atleast enough to know i would rather be working on cars and bikes :lol1 you can certaintly spot in gelcoat. it always dries lumpy and dull so every repair will be blocked smooth and buffed to get flat and shine. you really need to be dead nuts on the color since there is no blending. good thing is its all solids and there are way fewer pigments involved than in automotive. there might be 12 or so and thats it. batches of gelcoat are never the same color and gel changes color in the weather and sun much more than paint does so getting gel from the manufacturer or somehting mixed up is uaually a waste of time. you really need a basic starter color which is in the ballpark and tint from there. you can buy gelcoat pigments or you can use different colors of gelcoat to tint with.
Is there any certain gelcoat systems that are easier to work with than others? And can toners from one company be used with other companies? We did a spot job on a boat the other day and the customer brought gelcoat in that they ordered from the manufacturer and it was off ( a touch to dark) and what is a decent gun setup to use to spray this stuff? We used an iwata with a 1.4 and that was amusing to say the least. We thinned it with acetone to get it out of the gun. I was thinking maybe a airgunza with a 2.0 tip or maybe even a little larger.
Thanks, Chuck
we used to use those $20 suction touchup guns to spray it. ones you can get from home depot or harbor freight. you know the ones with the trigger on top that you push down with your pointer finger. they actually have a fairly large tip and if the gel kickes off on you you wont cry over the $20 piece of trash you have in your hand. you will usually have to reduce gel with acetone. it will spray smoother no matter what gun you use.
I’ve got a dump gun. It hasn’t seen much use with gelcoat. sprays like crap, never seems to match color. Its a losing battle in my mind, but of course I have no experience matching colors.
Got another wierd one to add on to this. Was asked today to paint (color change with gelcoat) a slide for a pool. The guy has an awesome pool setup in his backyard with a waterfall and everything and the installers put in the wrong color slide. Have no idea what to give as far as an estimate, no idea at all what something like that would take. And not really sure how good it would buff out once it was done. I am assuming that you would have to sand and buff this thing once it was done. Taking it out isnt really an option. This thing is built into the waterfall. I dont think that it looks that bad right now and I would hate to have something that wouldnt be a definate improvement. Any thoughts?
yes, gel always needs to be sanded smooth and buffed back out. you would need to sand the whole thing with 150 grit. shoot the gel. sande it smooth with say 320, 600, 1000 then buff. its not like paint where you need to take it to higher grits but you do need to use gelcoat compound. the key is really to put enough gel on so when you sand and buff you dont make it so thin you can see the under color….just like with a single stage.
another note, when you spray gel not in a mold it needs to have wax mixed in it or it will dry sticky. in a mold, no wax, not in a mold/repairs…wax.
The wax tip is good to know. The boat that my buddy sprayed the other day dried real sticky. I think I will pass on the regelcoating the pool slide. I need to play around with this stuff a bit before I jump in and mess up some guys fancy pool. Thanks for the tips Jim that’s what makes this site such a good place to frequent.
Thanks
Chuck
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