Gel coat repair and color matching

[DADDYS TOY]

Guys, I need your help. I bought my dads boat from him last year due to his failing health. This was his baby and we spent lots of time in it. Jan. of this year I had a bottom job done on my sailboat and needed to move it from the yard to the slip. He wanted to go with me to get out of the house so we headed down. While we were out spending the day together he said, "you know what I miss the most son?" I said, Whats that daddy? He said, "Fishing!".....Daddy taught me the love of the water and fishing. He bought this 1990 Hydra-Sport 1750 new and he's had it all these years. It was his pride and Joy. I lost my dad Feb 13th and the first thing Ive done is to start "prettying up" his ole boat.

I want it to look brand new, just like it did when he bought it. Ive always maintained the engine,trailer,tires etc for him,so that part is good. It has a little damage on the nose from getting caught under the bridge in a storm while he and mom were out in it. That happened back in 1990 and he always wanted to get it fixed. Ive repaired that but I am needing the name of the color of the gel coat? This boat will stay with me as long as I live and I want it to stay looking like it did when it was new in honor of my dad. Can you please help with the color code or the name of it? Thanks, The Son.

 

[cribber]

Re: My Dads Toy.....

Re: My Dads Toy.....

Why don't you take you boat to a place that sells gelcoat and ask them to do a color match. Then either pay them for the mix numbers or order what you need from them.

 

[DADDYS TOY]

Re: My Dads Toy.....

Re: My Dads Toy.....

I can do that. But being the boat has been garage kept, If I had the color code or the name of the color, they could send it to me. Besides they are only open from 8-5 mon thru fri. And to pull a boat an hour away in this Houston traffic???? Holy Cow.....! Its fine if your up at 4am heading to the gulf!

 

[DuckHunterJon]

Re: My Dads Toy.....

Re: My Dads Toy.....

I don't have anywhere near the experience that others on the forum have - but any gelcoat matching I've ever seen done was with custom mixing colors. You can buy kits that come with 4 or 5 colors and you mix them a drop at a time to get the right color. One tip, mix them on a clear piece of plastic like transparancy film so you can mix directly over the color. Gelcoat doesn't change color when it cures, so you just mix it to match and fill the spots in.

You might want to peruse through the restoration section for more info on this.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: My Dads Toy.....

Re: My Dads Toy.....

Moving and renaming this thread. The experts will soon follow. Good luck with your dad's boat.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: My Dads Toy.....

Re: My Dads Toy.....

I'm NOT a Gelcoat expert but I have been on the forum enuf to know that color matching gelcoat is an ARTFORM especially for a 20 year old boat where the colors have faded. Having the codes will not be much help. It will be a "hit and miss" proposition at best. OOPS ,Yacht Doctor , and Ondarvr are some of the Best we have here on the forum and they are always talking about how much of a problem this can be. I am sure they will stop by and give you their two cents worth. DuckHunterJon was pretty close in his advise as to what will need to be done to get the gelcoat to match but again I am NOT an expert just someone who does a LOT or reading and researching here on the Forum and on the internet.
This is a Basic article that will give you some ideas.
http://www.boatbuilding.net/article.pl?sid=06/03/16/1519258

 

[ondarvr]

Re: My Dads Toy.....

Re: My Dads Toy.....

This company has an extensive list of factory colors matched, so they may have what you need.

http://www.spectrumcolor.com/default.asp

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: My Dads Toy.....

Re: My Dads Toy.....

Gelcoat doesn't change color when it cures

Actually..it does change when it cures if you start adding pigments..

I didnt think that spectrum sells to the public. When you call them the first thing there going to ask is " what is the
account # ".

Come monday I will look in the spectrum catalog and see if they sell for your boat.

What is the color that you need ( white,blue,yellow ?? ) .. deck or hull ?

Can you PM me with your hull number please That might help if there is a year difference.

btw..a Qt of gel is over a hundred bucks just to let you know up front.

If you want to custom match let us know .. I might even start a thread on color matching .

YD.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: My Dads Toy.....

Re: My Dads Toy.....

The spectrum color is 2603 off white.

YD.