2011 Yar-craft 209 TFX fiberglass and gelcote repair

[Trip1]

I purchased a boat with minor fire damage. The boat is polyflake apple red in color and there are a couple of areas where the gelcote is damaged into the polyflake. It appears that the red color is derived from the red polyflakes. I really need some help trying to match the flake and was wondering if anyone knows what the color is under the clear/flake layer of gelcote. It looks like it could be black. Also, what is tip will be needed to spray it on? I have a Devillbiss finishline sprayer with a 1.8 mm tip. Will that be big enough if I thin the gelcote with styrene? I know it is'nt going to be perfect, but want as close to oem as possible. Thanks in advance for your replies!!!

 

[Teamster]

No idea how to fix it,...

But Yar-Craft builds a heck of a nice boat!

 

[Slager]

Yay, Another Yar-craft owner. Welcome to Iboats.

I don't have experience working with gel coat and flake. But my understanding is that the base color of gel coat could vary, but black isn't an uncommon base color. And from what I hear, spraying metal flake can be very difficult. You may want to pick up small amounts of metal flake in varius shades of red and various sizes and do some trial and error testing on a board. When you can make the board look enough like the boat to satisfy you'll be ready to spray the boat. You could call Yar-craft and see if they know the typical size and colors of red metal flake from 2011.

Putting up some pictures will help others that know more help. The easiest way is to upload photos to photo bucket and then copy and paste the img code directly into your post.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

 

[Woodonglass]

You're gunna need a 2.5 mm tip and you'll have to work fast. You only have 15mins before the GC with start to kick. If you don't flush and clean with Acetone you won't have a Paint Gun!!!

 

[Trip1]

I hav'nt been on here for several days as things have been pretty crazy! For those that responded, thanks for the advice and kind words!!! I crawled into the storage area under driver cockpit, which was no easy feat. Kinda felt like I was in a straight jacket! Lol. I and am convinced that the base color is black. I spoke to Yar-craft and they don't have any drawings for my boat as the company sold to Basscat that year. Spoke to a few people at Basscat that do repairs on their boats and they took the time to give some advice on my repair. Apparently they match the flake as close as possible, then mix with clear and spray it on. Then they look at it in the light. If there are areas where the flake isnt heavy enough, they blow dry flake onto those spots. Then put 4 layers of clear mixed with Duratec over the flake layer. I will try to post some pics of the boat asap. Again thanks for the advice!

 

[Slager]

I'm glad you could get some advice from Yar-craft even if not info for an exact match of the flake. There aren't a lot of metal flake repair projects on here, so providing info on what you get to work may help out other's future projects. Keep us updated when you start to match the flake and spray the gel coat.