Brush on Gel Coat?

[keelbolts]

You can brush varnish, paints, and resins on. Why not gel coat. You put it on thick & sand it down so brush strokes shouldn't be a problem. What makes gel coat the one thing you can't brush on?

[David]

You can brush it if you want to. It will just need to be sanded smooth.

[Tim]

Gelcoat is routinely brushed on in certain applications.

[keelbolts]

Uuuuhhhhh, I knew that.



OK, well here's my next question. Why does it appear that almost everybody paints their restorations rather than re-gel coating them?

[bcooke]

Because paint is better :-)

Re-gelcoating an entire hull is a hugely onerous task too. A local boat painter did it last year in my yard. After spraying it on, he sanded with 100-220-400-600-800-1200 and then had to polish it forever. It looked like crap when he was done too. He wasn't proud of it and has vowed never to do it again.

Gelcoat is great when you can spray it into a polished mold and it becomes the outer layer in a fiberglass layup. That's what it is designed for. Topcoating afterwards is better left to paint. That's only my opinion of course.

[keelbolts]

I have The Lure of Sailing by Everett Pearson, you've heard of him before, who says, speaking of fiberglass boats, ""Never needs painting"? That depends. It doesn't need painting to protect the surface, but it will need it for looks after a few years." I guess that's still true.

Again, I get the answer I need here. There is no other site on the internet like this one. I'm proud to be at least a small part of it. Thank you again Tim.

[Tim]

The last boat I saw re-gelcoated (and the owner was just simply adamant that it just had to be gelcoated, not Awl-Gripped, God forbid) turned into about the worst-looking boat in the anchorage within about 2 years. The new gelcoat just was awful and turned into a dull, chalky, oxidized mess much more quickly than anyone could have expected; even neglected gelcoat on a new boat tends to remain fairly OK for a number of years before turning into this sort of horrible mess. I am sure this owner spent a pretty penny on his fancy gelcoat job.

Later, when he prepared to sell the boat, he Awl-Gripped it first.

Maybe something was just wrong with this particular application, but as outstanding as professional LPU paints are, I can't imagine why anyone would choose re-gelcoating over these excellent and durable paints.

[BALANCE]

Tim, the scattered areas on my hull where it meets the capral....my intent has been (once it stops raining) to ligtly cover those areas with some thickened epoxy and sanding smooth. I will be repainting the entire exterior of the bulwarks. Would it make more sense to brush it with gel coat?

[Tim]

Would it make more sense to brush it with gel coat?

No.

[Quetzalsailor]

Well, s***; I just got caught again by the time out thing and it wasn't an hour.

Some boats were filled and gelcoated along joints at the factory. Our '70 Morgan 27 was, and the coating only lasted 25 years before it cracked. The filler and gelcoat was across the hull-deck joint where the toerails did not cover, and the joint was 5200 and bolted. Our NE38 was and since the joints were bonded with 'glass, it's mostly fine after 39 years.

I've seen a mid '60s Advance Flying Dutchman which was re-gelcoated all over. It was absolutely gorgeous.

There are books on fiberglass repair which cover color matching, the air-inhibited issue, matching non-skid, buffing, etc. Must be possible.

I've applied gelcoat with a brush and it did not look at all bad in terms of gloss, drips, and coverage. However, I made two other errors which made the job a total failure: air-inhibited issue, spilled the hardener, used it over epoxy.

[Oscar]

used it over epoxy

You can not use gelcoat over epoxy?

[Case]

I have heard of people using gelcoat over epoxy but the big thing is... the epoxy was still not fully cured when the gelcoat was used to cover the epoxy.

Otherwise, gelcoat on epoxy doesn't work. That's what I have gathered over years of reading forums.

- Case

[Tim]

As usual, the "other forum" rumor mill is false, or at least less than ideally informed.

Though there are only rare occasions where one might really want or need to do this, it is possible to apply gelcoat over epoxy. But certain procedures need be taken. I have done this with good results, but in general would not see any reason to use gelcoat anyway.

http://www.epoxyworks.com/22/polyester.html

[Rachel]

I could see making a few gelcoat repairs on a boat where the rest of the gelcoat is still in very good condition, but if (as you say) you are going to be painting, why use gelcoat first? I would paint the repaired areas.

(Epoxy does need to be kept out of the sun, so, as you plan, it's good to cover the repaired area with paint now, even if it's not the "real" paint job of the whole bulwark yet.)

Rachel

[stone]

Hmmm my text never showed up.
This is a pic of my catamaran that I just brushed on the gel coat. I am a very active racer and I am constantly fairing the bottoms before every regatta. I use cabosil and microballons in polyester resin for the fairing and filling nicks then the gel coat. I start sanding with 220 then slowly move up in grits and finish with 600. IMO there a few to zero reasons to ever mix epoxy with gel coat.