Holes, chips and scrapes in gelcoat.

[gford001]

Hey,
Just thought I'd put a bit of info on for anyone looking to fill old screw holes, chips or whatever in their boats.
My old seafarer has a million old screw holes, antenna holes, scrapes etc in the finish and I've been slowly getting them sorted out. I found this product at northside marine.
112353
Costs about $18 a tin. Works a treat for filling the holes and stuff, just mix it and apply it. Wait for it to go off then wet sand it.
I found some Shot glasses, about $2 for a hundred or so at the local cheap shop, as well as some big paddle pop stick things.
112354
Only drama I had was that the stuff was REALLY white. It looks way better then it did, but it does stand out. So on my second tin I had an idea. I took it to Autobarn and asked the guy to tint it. We were worried it wouldn't work well with Acrylic tinting stuff, but seemed to have no issues.
I knew my boat was something like Oyster White, but probably faded over time. He looked up oyster white and it said 9 grams of Reduced Ochre and a dash of black per 100ml of paint. I figured I'd go about half that, or less as it turned out (3.5g). And didn't bother with black.
Mixed ok and seemed to work. Just tried it out on a patch of boat and it seems to have worked fine. Went off like it should and not stark white. Haven't been feeling 100% so haven't sanded it yet, but I reckon I've nailed it.
So if anyone else is wondering how to fill holes, and how to tint that putty stuff, it looks like whatever they use at Autobarn will do the job.
As a bonus, it was such a small amount the bloke didn't even charge.......
I have used that magic easy, but it's not so good for the larger holes and expensive as. I reckon if you get the tint right on this stuff it's the go.

[Oceanic Dave]

Hey!

Can you please post up some pics of your repairs?

[gford001]

Hey!

Can you please post up some pics of your repairs?
Will do. It'll be a couple of days though. Busy tomorrow, hopefully sand it Wednesday, then I'll post a comparison.

[gford001]

I guess if anyone needed any help colour matching, you can swing by and see what 3.5 grams of Reduced Ochre gets you on my boat, then adjust your own mixture from there......

[Rip it up]

Another trick is to get the tints put into a car touch up bottle at the paint shops. Orche and a very light grey are the two I use the most to match up White gelcoat chips.

Brush flowcoat poured into a paper cup and mix up a large batch without adding catalyst.

You can adjust the colour tints by wiping it onto the boat to check the match and simply wipe off 3 or 4 test stripes with acetone prior to making smaller batches. Then small batches will all be identical. If you need multiple coats etc.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

[gford001]

Another trick is to get the tints put into a car touch up bottle at the paint shops. Orche and a very light grey are the two I use the most to match up White gelcoat chips.

Brush flowcoat poured into a paper cup and mix up a large batch without adding catalyst.

You can adjust the colour tints by wiping it onto the boat to check the match and simply wipe off 3 or 4 test stripes with acetone prior to making smaller batches. Then small batches will all be identical. If you need multiple coats etc.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.
So how do you apply flow coat? Is it like paint? I'm toying with just going over my whole cabin exterior, but every time I look at it I talk myself out of it...... And I have no idea what to use or how to do it. I've sprayed a jet ski before, but that was pretty straight forward, and trial and error, not to mention Shit loads of work.