Metal flake touchup on bass boat?

[MASTER Brian]

I have an '86 Ranger Fish/Ski, which of course has the metal flake. There are several areas on the hull, where it has scrapes that go beyond the metal flake and I'd like to touch it up. Ranger still stocks the gel coat in the colors I need, so getting the exact match - minus fading over the years, is possible.

I have some experience with auto paints and have a couple of fairly nice paint guns laying around as well as an air brush. Would it be very hard to use the air brush to apply this gel coat with metal flakes or not? What about applying clear gel coat over the faded metal flake with one of the guns. How hard is this?

Like I said I have some experience and I even have a good friend that has painted a fair number of cars and has a paint booth. I might be able to get him to help.

I am just curious what I would be getting into, as I've never messed with gel coat.

Thanks

 

[Friscoboater]

Re: Metal flake touchup on bass boat?

I am not sure how you would spray a flake gelcoat. The way boat are built is that the gelcoat is sprayed into a mold and that is how you get the gloss. Now with a solid color gelcoat you can spray it and them buff it out, but with a flake you will just get flakes.

Someone correct me if I am wrong.

 

[MASTER Brian]

Re: Metal flake touchup on bass boat?

My guess is that the flake is mixed into a clear, but I too could be wrong. The parts guy said it comes with instructions. I'm also guessing it would be best to clear over it.......

 

[Friscoboater]

Re: Metal flake touchup on bass boat?

I would ask the parts guy if he has ever used it. I think it is going to be like touch up paint for the car. The parts guys say "oh yea... it will look perfect" and then you have a miss-matched spot on your car because it does not match.

 

[geedubcpa]

Re: Metal flake touchup on bass boat?

When i used to paint cars the flakes were sometimes added to the clearcoat or after the basecoat.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Metal flake touchup on bass boat?

You need to step away and ask a stranger to look at the scratch from about 5 feet...... sometimes a gel coat repair is just better with a straight color in a small spot...... and it will never be noticed.

I am just trying to relieve the angst but gel coat is near impossible to match on small spots.

 

[MASTER Brian]

Re: Metal flake touchup on bass boat?

Well, I don't expect it to be perfect, just less noticable. I actually fixed one 6" gauge/scratch with some metal flake glitter and some epoxy resin. It is a bit darker, but it's actually hard to tell from any distance. The other scratch is somewhat longer and it i noticable from a ways away. I think any color in there is better than nothing. Worst case, I could just respray that whole stripe if I could figure out what I'm doing and then clear coat the entire thing. I may actaully call a shop and see what they would charge....