Reply With QuoteDidn't see a forum that discussed gelcoat, so I thought I'd start here..
Got a buddy who scratched up his gelcoat pretty bad. He's looking to get a new gelcoat since he was not too happy with the original gelcoat design.
1) Any recommendations? Looking for someone with a portfolio and references from their past work.
2) How much does a new Gelcoat cost? (24ft boat; # colors?)
3) Can you give me a high level description of the steps?
4) Will a re-gelcoat be as durable as the original?
1)Salvador at Orange County Boat Repair
2) really depends on the condition of the hull, but I would expect a MINIMUM of $6500 for a quality job with quality prep. assuming your hull is in good shape with few/no cracks and a simple 2 color scheme
3)Sand the whole boat down, any areas where their are cracks will be ground down to bare glass, and then the cracks will be repaired with glass, then the repair smoothed with filler. In the case of some stress cracks, they may be the result of poor bulkhead design/installation or a loose bulkhead; that bulkhead/structural issue should be resolved to keep the crack from comming back. Once all of the repairs are made and they have a nice smooth surface to start with, the boat is masked for it's different colors and then different colors of gel are shot into their respectively masked areas. Basically butting one area of gel up against another of contrasting color. Once the gel is shot, it is either sprayed with PVA to create an anaerobic environment for the gel to cure, or an additive was mixed into the gel that will rise to the surface and seal the work. Once the gel has fully cured, the sanding begins. Different folks have different preferences on the steps of grit, but the bottom line is a heavy grit to knock down the orange peel, then finner grits from there. Once it's sanded smooth, it's buffed and ready for pickup. Of course that's the 40,000 foot run down and since I'm not in that line of work, others on here could go into much more exacting detail. One thing I'll pass along is that the $$$ in the job is in the labor. Lots and lots of sanding to get a good base, and then a good finshed product after you spray. Stay away from too good to be true deals on gelcoat, because as some people on the boards have found out, they are just that... too good to be true. It's no fun putting your boat on the water for the first time after it's re-gel only to notice pieces of repair work missing from the hull when you put it back on the trailer.
4)depends on the prep that happened before the new gel is applied. If you're asking about cracking after the fact, some of these old boats have seen their share of abuse and some of that abuse may re appear after time if the repairs aren't done correctly/thuroughly. I've seen a total regel done on a Howard21 by OC Fiberglass that took the orriginal color scheme of the boat, but because of the better gels we have today, made the simple cream, orange and woodgrain scheme look beautiful. THere was also a Spectra 20 done for a guy that goes by Busti on the boards that was completely re-geled and it looks fabulous. Like anything, if you do it right the first time, you work can stand the test of time.
Bottom line, make sure you love the boat, cause to do it right will cost a good amount of money.
Good luck,
Chris
