Century Coronado restore

[mickyryan]

good idea or just get premixed and make sure its shaken well add your 10 percent to think it and spray away, also dont spray in sun i made that mistake once

 

[89 resorter]

Hum? never thought of the pre-mixed but I already have two galloons of gel and a pint of new wax on order so think I will stay the original course. Boat is in my building so sun should not be an issue unless we get a rare fall tornado or something ….. on second thought, with as chitty as this spring, summer and now fall has been in this area, anything could happen (lol with fingers crossed)

 

[89 resorter]

Gel coat ended up sanding pretty much normal and all of the spatter was knocked off with a couple strokes of the sand paper. Hopefully I will get a chance this coming weekend to finish sanding the repaired areas, clean and spray the final coat (temps permitting).

After pic
​

 

[89 resorter]

Temps did not work out last weekend ….. only made it into the mid 60's. Took a little longer than expected but I finally got all of my touch up areas (and overspray) sanded down to 180 grit finish. I struggled to get through wax layer in some areas so I'm thinking that 10% wax was too much. It went a little easier once I washed the areas with naphta then some soap & water to remove some of the wax. Pulling our docks this Saturday so no boat work but forecast is for sunny and 78 this Sunday so I hope to get the last coat sprayed so I can do all of the final sanding, cutting, buffing etc. over the winter.

 

[Woodonglass]

Look good. Normal ratio of Surfacing Wax is 2-4 oz per gallon.

 

[89 resorter]

Wow, that's a lot less that what I've been using. No wonder that I get more wax balls building up on the sand paper than actually making gelcoat dust. I will make sure to take it down to 1 1/2 to 3% in my mixture

 

[89 resorter]

The final coat of gel didn't go well on Sunday and I struggled for hours to get any material to spray out of my gun :frusty:. The gun worked fine the first three coats when the gel coat was barely thinned down and using 2.5mm tip. I attempted to spray this final coat thinned down with 30-35% patch booster and using a 1.2mm tip but the gun hardly laid down any material. After about 20 minutes of spraying and still having most of the gel still in the cup, I pulled the gun apart and cleaned it good. The gel had begun to harden but that was after about 20 minutes of spraying. I mixed a new batch without hardener so I could make some test sprays and get the gun adjusted but still could not get hardly any material to spray. This is my first project using a HPLV gun so I'm pretty sure it has something to do with "Operator error". Looks like I may have all winter to get it figured out since it is a good possibility that this was our last week of weather in the mid-70's.

 

[gm280]

The final coat of gel didn't go well on Sunday and I struggled for hours to get any material to spray out of my gun :frusty:. The gun worked fine the first three coats when the gel coat was barely thinned down and using 2.5mm tip. I attempted to spray this final coat thinned down with 30-35% patch booster and using a 1.2mm tip but the gun hardly laid down any material. After about 20 minutes of spraying and still having most of the gel still in the cup, I pulled the gun apart and cleaned it good. The gel had begun to harden but that was after about 20 minutes of spraying. I mixed a new batch without hardener so I could make some test sprays and get the gun adjusted but still could not get hardly any material to spray. This is my first project using a HPLV gun so I'm pretty sure it has something to do with "Operator error". Looks like I may have all winter to get it figured out since it is a good possibility that this was our last week of weather in the mid-70's.

I personally have never sprayed gel coat or with a tip of 2.5mm size. But I have sprayed lots of paint and primers with HVLP guns. And once you get everything setup and adjusted, I think you too will love them over siphon feed guns. Usually with paint you set the air pressure, at the gun, to 30 - 40 PSI. And that corresponds to ~10 PSI at the tip. That is the best setup for paint. Gel Coat, being a lot thicker, could be totally different and you should check with local Gel Coat sprayer to see what they do. You may have to switch back to the 2.5mm tip and adjust the gun from there. Gel Coat is not paint and that makes it different in gun setup. And since it is a two part mixture, I can easily see a larger tip opening for starters. JMHO

 

[89 resorter]

The idea for the last coat was that it be thinned down to about the same viscosity as paint so that it can be applied with minimal amount of orange peel and the first sanding can be done as fine as 320 wet. I have been going by the Bertram31.com website which actually recommended a 1mm tip for the last coat but 1.4mm was the smallest available for my gun so I went with that. But then again, they also stated using 10% surfacing wax which WOG already pointed out was way too much so who knows.... If its on the internet, it must be true … right? LOL

 

[kcassells]

Ahah! There ya go! I knew it. The ole 31 Bertram31.com website. Ahah again says I!
Thank God I have no reason to like or use gelcoat.

 

[89 resorter]

Ummmm, KC.....I tinks you maybe know something I should know too bout Bertram31.com huh????

 

[sphelps]

Idk , I think I would go back to the larger tip ... No matter whatcha do it’s gunna take a good bit of sanding ...

 

[kcassells]

No 89 just pulling your leg. Just visited the site and it's pretty informative., Thanks for the lead. :joyous:

 

[mickyryan]

I after sam warned me went the Gel coat route, never again... Gel coat is best used in molds not sprayed , no matter what anyone tells you the worst orange peel you can imagine on paint is easier to fix then the best gelcoat , Gel coat is too finicky, urathanes are where its at imho 2k, bedliner products that are polyeuras or basically urethane these products adhere really well to Gel coats properly sanded , don't require a primer on gelcoat and last a long long time.Raptor liner is my favorite Bed liner product because its tintable and can be thinned to spray in a hvlp easily or shot with a orange peel that makes oranges enviousI have also used one other dominator, was at local supply house , it was glossier but thinner imho.
ps. imho Gel coat can be the go to if you have proper setup and all the star's are aligned as in good shop good compressor no air and proper equipment that most back yards don't have .
Shored hardness of most perfectly mixed Gelcoat is 80 raptor liner bed liner is 85-90, and it has flex so it don't crack would have to recheck but i believe hardness of 2k paint is 90 as well .

 

[89 resorter]

The only reason I went with gel coat is that the boat will (eventually) be docked for 4 or 5 months a year and I have not heard of any paint that holds up well in that environment. I do plan on going with a paint product of some sort for the topcoat when I get that far. I discussed by problem with our paint/powder coat supervisor here at work and he told me that it sounded like I may need to tighten the packing nut on the gun..... I did not mention in my previous posts, but the gel was actually thinned to the point where it dripped from the tip from time-to-time. I'm going to adjust the packing nut and make some more test shoots (heck, I've got all winter now). If I can't get the thinned stuff to work, I will do like Sam suggested and just spray the last coat with the 2.5mm tip and start the sanding at 180 grit. How high does the temp need for me to begin the primer on the topside areas? I can usually get the building up to 50 degrees with my wood burner...idk

 

[gm280]

The only reason I went with gel coat is that the boat will (eventually) be docked for 4 or 5 months a year and I have not heard of any paint that holds up well in that environment. I do plan on going with a paint product of some sort for the topcoat when I get that far. I discussed by problem with our paint/powder coat supervisor here at work and he told me that it sounded like I may need to tighten the packing nut on the gun..... I did not mention in my previous posts, but the gel was actually thinned to the point where it dripped from the tip from time-to-time. I'm going to adjust the packing nut and make some more test shoots (heck, I've got all winter now). If I can't get the thinned stuff to work, I will do like Sam suggested and just spray the last coat with the 2.5mm tip and start the sanding at 180 grit. How high does the temp need for me to begin the primer on the topside areas? I can usually get the building up to 50 degrees with my wood burner...idk

89, the temp really depends on what paint you are planning to use, and the humidity also plays a role as well. Where I live, The humidity is usually very high and I have to have a drier inline at the gun to keep from water being sprayed with the paint. So even with a larger tip opening, you can spray a very nice coat. Tip sizes are more of a suggestion for the viscosity of the media you're using. Even a large tip size can still allow you to flow a nice smooth coat that would take little sanding to make it look great. Just have to work with what you have. With all that said, I have never ever tried spraying gel coat. Everything I know about HVLP guns, equipment and tip sizes is purely from spraying automotive primers, paints and clear coats. But remember, You can always recoup from any spraying problem. Even mistakes are repairable. JMHO!

 

[mickyryan]

DOWN HERE IN FLORIDA I HAVE 3 INLINE DRYERS AND ONE MORE AT THE TIP , sorry bout capslock whatever you spray should have min and max temps listed as a reference

 

[89 resorter]

Dryers are just another price you guys pay for living in the year round good weather I guess. Up here we get pretty humid summers but once we reach mid-Sept that crap goes away and we wait for the other crap to get here :smow:. I guess I will begin researching various paint systems and hopefully get started with getting the sides of the boat primer coated and ready for paint.

 

[kcassells]

Hey resorter
That link to Bertram gave me alot of insight regarding window install DIY.
Thanks again.

 

[89 resorter]

Glad it helped ….. I've actually never looked at the entire site. I was just searching for gel coating how to and found a link to the article I decided to try and follow. Will have to take some time to look at what all is on there.

Have fun with the window install!