who can offer gelcoat coloring advice

[mrdeepseafisher]

I am doing a small amount of gelcoat repair and have never had to color match gelcoat. I did the repair yesterday and it came out better than expected other than the color. Its much whiter and the boat has more of a cream color. How do you get white gelcoat to be cream colored? Use brown tint?

Does the uncured gelcoat change color (i.e. lighten or darken) as it dries? The work is on a small boat we are selling and not the Hatteras.

 

[jim rosenthal]

IMHO the only way to get this right is to consult someone who does it for a living. It may be possible to get close by trial and error, but gelcoat does change color as it ages, so a repair that looks good when it initially cures may not stay that way. You might find something on the Jamestown Distributors web site that would be helpful. More helpful would be getting professional advice and/or help. This seems to be to be an "experience and feel" kind of thing.

 

[tonytrakovich]

They sell gel coat tints. Jamestown dist or west marine has them. Black, brown, and yellow are the colors that are used to make cream color. Check out boatworkstoday.com they have a great tutorial on gel coat color match.

 

[mdshore]

the searay / hatteras off white is generally achieved w brown and yellow tints. the best way is to spray with duratec gel coat additive and mix with clear to blend , but Im getting over into pro application techniques .

you can buy gel coats and additives from mini-craft in FL.

 

[saltshaker]

I am doing a small amount of gelcoat repair and have never had to color match gelcoat. I did the repair yesterday and it came out better than expected other than the color. Its much whiter and the boat has more of a cream color. How do you get white gelcoat to be cream colored? Use brown tint?

Does the uncured gelcoat change color (i.e. lighten or darken) as it dries? The work is on a small boat we are selling and not the Hatteras.

Where are you doing this? You do realize that a Hatteras is painted not finished gelcoat?

 

[dsharp]

Read the op's last sentence

 

[34Hatt]

O.K so too add a tan tint to it your best way is to make some tan first white gel coat/brown tint or you can buy tan tint. Have the tan in a separate cup and add a little at a time. Don't add just tint to your gel coat color you can over do it to easily and really mess things up.
So with whites it generally will get a little lighter with cure and polish. You need to polish it out to see for sure. A lot of whites need a little bit of yellow added also so do some yellow with white gel coat then add that to you color if need be. I do a small spot until I am happy with the match then go around and fix everything. It takes a little time but once you get the color your good.
I would only use the Duratec if your doing a big area and make sure its good and warm when ever you use it! For you small spot of touch up a prevail sprayer works well and even home depot has them.

Let me know if you have any other questions its not rock science but has it tricks.

And add wax!

 

[mrdeepseafisher]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm gonna check with a few of the distributors today to purchase some coloring agents. For what its worth, I have sprayed the Duratec and built several molds to build fish boxes and what not. I have never had to match the gelcoat as all parts I've built have been new, so this part is a bit new to me.

We purchased a new to us rigid inflatable and I am selling our old one. Someone had given us a cup holder that was supposed to just stick on any place you install it. I went to pull it off and pulled a chunk of gel coat off. I will not repeat the language that was expelled when this happened. This is the story of my life. Had to call the person wanting our old one and let them know it may be a week or two longer before we are ready to sell it.

Thanks for the help.

 

[RT46]

I recall that there is a company in Florida that will make you a color matched gallon of gelcoat if
you supply them with a golf ball sized sample.

I don't recall the name of the company but I found them with a google search.

If I remember correctly it cost about $300 a gallon.

I had two bad experiences with mixing color myself;
-once I colored epoxy a perfect match and the epoxy yellowed in the sun after time
-the other time after a perfect color match I used old catalyist and the gelcoat never cured properly and remained tacky, I had to remove it with acetone and re-sand, what a mess.

lesson learned:
1.don't try to color epoxy and don't use old resin and old catalyist (it has a shelf life)
2.$300 a gallon on perfect matched gelcoat sounds high, but in the long run it would have saved me money and time

 

[RT46]

Oh yea I forgot about this gelcoat color match error I made.

don't use anything but natural light when mixing the color.

Once, I mixed a perfect match under the work lights that was way off in the sunlight.

 

[34Hatt]

I recall that there is a company in Florida that will make you a color matched gallon of gelcoat if
you supply them with a golf ball sized sample.

I don't recall the name of the company but I found them with a google search.

If I remember correctly it cost about $300 a gallon.

I had two bad experiences with mixing color myself;
-once I colored epoxy a perfect match and the epoxy yellowed in the sun after time
-the other time after a perfect color match I used old catalyist and the gelcoat never cured properly and remained tacky, I had to remove it with acetone and re-sand, what a mess.

lesson learned:
1.don't try to color epoxy and don't use old resin and old catalyist (it has a shelf life)
2.$300 a gallon on perfect matched gelcoat sounds high, but in the long run it would have saved me money and time

Epoxy always has to be top coated not UV stable.