gelcoat color match...

ric2352

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Have an 89 Overniter. What are the colors and proportions needed to match original gelcoat. Gelcoat is in excellent shape, other than port rear corner where a surge slammed us into a dock and knocked a bit off the corner. Would like to repair this. Any help appreciated....thanks!
 

sfc2113

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Really hard to get a perfect match.

1 oz of evercoat white gelcoat, 1 drop of brown tint is the best I could get. Once buffed you can hardly tell a difference.
 

seasick

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ric2352 said:
Have an 89 Overniter. What are the colors and proportions needed to match original gelcoat. Gelcoat is in excellent shape, other than port rear corner where a surge slammed us into a dock and knocked a bit off the corner. Would like to repair this. Any help appreciated....thanks!
You can buy a patch kit from yout Grady Dealer. You can also use Spectrum Color products but I am not sure if you can still buy directly from them.
 

1st grady

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Start with 1 oz. white gelcoat, add a half grain of rice sized yellow tint and a pencil dot of black tint and a pencil dot of red tint. Try to keep it too light because it is way harder to lighten the mix than darken it. If too dark, add more white. If too grey, add yellow. It will look pink in the mix. Take a sample out to the boat in the sunlight and smear a blotch right onto the area you are trying to match. Be sure to do this prior to adding hardner. I guess the brown tint is yellow and red but depending on the brown tint, I couln't get mine to match.
 

gw204

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Standard white gelcoat w/ a tiny...and I mean TINY...bit of brown coloring agent has worked well for me. When I color matched the gelcoat on my old '85 and '93, I would simply add the liquid gelcoat to my mixing cup first. Then I would squeeze a dab of coloring agent on to a scrap piece of carboard and just touch the the corner of my mixing stick in the brown and then mix into the white. If that wasn't enough, I'd touch it again. You have to be careful though as stated, it doesn't take much to make you mix too dark.

Doing this I've been able to get near perfect matches on the older boats. I would imagine newer, less faded hull are tougher to match by mixing yourself.

Applied with a $5 Preval sprayer (after thinning)...

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192

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Brian ... vary impressive work there ... thanks for the tips
 

ROBERTH

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Brian, how in the world did you get the cleat off? Or was it just screwed on?
 

gw204

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Robert - the cleat was bolted on. I was able to get to the nuts by reach up through the aft compartment.

ESMD - thinned w/ acetone. If memory serves, I used 6 ml per ounce of gelcoat. It's somewhere in my posts at the top of this board about non-skid replication. I've since heard styrene is a better option, but I have't used it.
 
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