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I plan to do some minor fiberglass/gelcoat repair in the spring. Everything I read tells me that one of the great things about fiberglass/gelcoat is how easy it is to repair. Yet, I see many people repairing fiberglass and gelcoat with epoxy (ie west system) and topside paint. Why do people do this? Why not just repair with fiberglass resin and gelcoat?

thanks
Graham

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Graham , I have often wondered this myself. As much as we do to keep our boats original it is surprising. I have a boat now that is painted and I am trying to sell it. I think that is a concern for some buyers.BG

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Refinishing old Whalers or other valuable boat with a two part polyurathane paint like AwlGrip will not devalue your boat. Many new large fiberglass yaughts are painted with AwlGrip right at the builders yard.

Repairing glass boats is not difficult if you have experience. Thats the rub. With no experience written instuctions won`t help much.

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what it does to the value of the boat is one question that needs to be answered.

the other question is why do it?

from what i understand, gelocat does not adhere to epoxy. so if you use west system to fix your glass, now you need to either paint the whole thing with 2-part paint or use a 'binder' that will allow you to apply gelcoat. this seems like a pain in the @$$. why not just use resin and gelcoat? is one inherently easier to work with? what am i missing?

thanks

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Many gelcoat manufacturers recommend not applying over epoxy but West Systems claims that their product line can be successfully used with gelcoat. They have information on their website pertaining to this topic. The most important thing to remember with epoxy is to remove the amine blush prior to overcoating with any product whether it be another coat of epoxy, paint, gelcoat or anything else. Amine blush is easily removed with plain water and a Scotchbrite pad. I have done hull repairs with West System and put gelcoat over the top of it with excellent results.

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Spraying gelcoat is much more labor intensive than painting. With painting, after the application, you only wet sand between coats and the final application is what it is. With gel, after the application, to must remove the PVA, wet sand, buff and polish to a shine. Plus gelcoat is very succeptable to cracking if you apply it too thick. Then there's always the danger of sanding through and having to reapply. The roll and tip method of painting is much easier to achieve a top notch finish.

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thanks.

now i get it.....

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Gelcoat vs Paint
Cost - About equal
Prep - Mostly the same
application - paint, although either take practice
post application work, paint is much less labor intensive
repairability - gelcoat wins
durability- gelcoat wins, you will have to repaint if you plan to keep your boat for 30+ years.
From the DIY perspective, paint is easier or at least we feel that way, since we have all painted a wall, why not a boat.

Perception- A boat that was originally gelcoat and is now paint, probably is hiding some major repair that makes us scared. Yes, I realize that lots of $$$ boats are painted, but they come that way, how would you feel if you ran across one that was paint, and is now gelcoat? Suspicious, I would be.

Gelcoat is what your boat came with, as with every project it's really the prep work that makes the project. once you have the boat properly prepared, you can make your choice. I plan to gelcoat the 13 in my yard, because the gelcoat has lasted 30+ years and I expect a new application to do the same.

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If you order your gelcoat form spectrum or minicraft it will cost you much more to gelcoat then paint. You need somewhere around 8 gallons of gelcoat to do a 17 foot boat.

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I used a little less than a gallon of gelcoat to do my 15(Spectrum matched perfectly). My experience with gelcoat has been very good compared to some . I read as much as I could about it and watched as many youtube videos as I could stand on the subject. I had a helper that mixed everything for me as I dresssed up like a space man. I felt that it was easier to spray than paint. Did not seam to run as bad. Coats were easy to dry and did so relatively quick. It covers very well. Some spider cracks in the anchor locker were not repared but sprayed over. Now I know that those will come back ??? but I have not seen them yet. I wanted to try it once just to see for myself . Well the 68 is getting a new gelcoat bottom so to each his own. Wet sanding to me is not very difficult. A little buffing and wax and it looks very nice.BG

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I would spray near double the amount you want for your final thickness because to sand out the orangle peel you will need to take out quite a bit of thickness. Measure for yourself the area you need to cover and don't trust other people's numbers. You really need to calculate the amount you need to spray to get the thickness you need, otherwise you are spraying blind. I perfered to spray about half of the bottom at a time because that allowed to cover the area more evenly. I think I need to repeat that you need to calculate how much you need to spray to get the thickness you need. I think you will find it will be much more than you think you need. Also, Duretec did not reduce orange peel for me.