Gel Coat Repair Patch

[itsmeagain5789]

So here is the story, i purchased a repo'd boat that had some significant gelcoat damage from docks and pilings. i repaired it with laminate, but now im trying to decide if i should take the boat to a pro so they can match the gelcoat, or if i can buff it and use the original facotry gel coat from spectrum. its an 02 proline. so only 7 years old. it has been in the sun all of its life. sat for 3-4 years before i bought it. what do you guys think i should do?

[bradv]

id say try it yourself. worse case youre out 30 bucks or so in material then you can just take it to somebody.

[itsmeagain5789]

its about $95 for the quart. so almst $100 to be playin with.. just want some opinions before i go for it.

[itsmeagain5789]

im probably just going to go ahead and buff the boat real good, then apply the spectrum gel coat, and see what happens. its still cheaper to go this route than to get it professionally paint matched i guess.

[thataway]

I picked up a 2 year boat which had been damaged during the blow down of a dry storage during Hurricane Ivan. I used about a quart of Spectrum color and it worked very well. I did compound the hull before matching the gel coat--and the match was close enough that no tinting was necessary. That was almost 4 years ago, and I just finished compounding and waxing the boat. You can see a few of the patches, but not many--the color match has been good and the aging consistant.

If you have the skills to do the laminate repair, you probably have the skills for the gel coat. Are you going to spray it, or tool/brush it on?

If the gel coat damage is extensive, you might consider painting the hull (assuming that there were not liner repairs also needed). I probably would go for it--figure what the labor will cost--it will not be cheap. Around here $50 an hour is about it for really good people who do gel coat.