Spraying two tone Gelcoat with flake?

[2014Skier]

Hey guys,

I'm restoring an 84 Malibu Skier, classic DD slalom tractor. I'm at the stage now where I'm planning the gelcoat scheme. I've done lots of reading on here about gel, tons of good info. I have a question regarding the colour scheme that I'm trying to accomplish. The boat is gonna be black and red, the red being polyflake. I'll attach a pic of the scheme I'm looking at making. The issue I'm having is, the order in which I spray the colours clear etc etc. If I spray the black first, say a few coats of unwaxed, then mask and spray the red base then red flake, then remove the tape and then spray several coats of clear over the whole deal last coat being waxed. When it comes time to sand it all down will the difference in thickness between the red and black produce an issue, given that the red will be thicker with the flake layer. I was also throwing around the idea of using a kinda inlay technique, but can't figure out how to do that given the use of flake over top of the red.

Any suggestions from you guys would be great.

 

[Chris1956]

Gee, red is not a proper color for a boat. Blue, silver and green 'flake are better.

I have never heard of gelcoat being clear enough for a metalflake finish. You may need to go with urethane paint.

 

[jbcurt00]

Metal flake boats are typically done w/ clear gel applied to the mold 1st so Gelcoat is available in a clear. Just to confirm you are planning to use gelcoat (that's what your boat has or had on it from the factory) & not paint, correct?

2014Ski: Are you an automotive body & paint person by trade or hobby w/ extensive knowledge of painting w/ flake?

If so you may be capable of shooting the boat as you've drawn it:

You may also have better results shooting it w/ metal flake PAINT instead.

My understanding is that typical metal flake paint is much harder to shoot & significantly harder to shoot really well compared to normal paint. Metal flake gelcoat is even more so. Because gelcoat typically requires you to sand it to get rid of any orange peel & normal defects related to shooting it, you spray almost twice the mil thickness you want & sand back to smooth.

W/ underlying metal flakes, and another color of gelcoat that doesn't have flake, IMO, you'll be shooting LOTS & LOTS of clear to both bury the flakes over the red & have the black transitions between flaked gel & non-flaked gel smooth & even.

Good luck w/ your project

 

[Woodonglass]

Gee, red is not a proper color for a boat. Blue, silver and green 'flake are better.

I have never heard of gelcoat being clear enough for a metalflake finish. You may need to go with urethane paint.

I guess you've not seen to many Bass Boats!!! LOT'S are Red and Heavy on the Metal Flake Gelcoat!!!

 

[nurseman]

There is good stuff on youtube about this. Here is a link to a series of videos that I thought were very informative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nSupSCsDGI
There are about 9 or 10 parts to the series. He sprays several colors, lots of flake, and a clear coat. Hope this helps.

 

[2014Skier]

Thanks for the replies guys, I'm not a pro at auto paint or anything like that, but I've done paint jobs before, I'd like to stick with gel coat and the pic that wood on glass posted is exactly the look I'm going for with the red. I know there is a ton of sanding etc etc involved but feel that gelcoat is the way I'd like to go.

I'll check out the youtube vids.

Right now I'm leaning towards spraying an unwaxed base of black, then red, then red flake, then several layers of clear with a final coat of clear and duratec. Just wanna make sure I'm not gonna run into problems with the different thicknesses black vs red plus flake when it comes to sanding time.

 

[zool]

Hey skier, welcome to drydock.

If I understand correctly, you want a two tone gel coat with one color flake?

If so, the benefit with the gel coat method is you can sand to a straight line, unlike with paint. Also, unlike with paint, you are in for a world of pain sanding, sanding, and more sanding. With that said, this would be the preferred method:

You don't want a full base coat of any color. What you want to do is either tape off the black areas, or the red ones, doesn't really matter. So lets say you tape off the black first. Tape the pattern, then lay lets say 3 heavy coats of black where it will be. Then tape off the red overlapping the black by a hair or so. Spray 2 coats of red, and the a third with the flake in it, or if you want a dense galaxy, one coat of solid red, and 2 with flake. You can use duratec to thin the resin, and use pva to cure the top coats. At this point, you wil have both colors and flake, at equal mill thickness. Sand the color separation edge to a straight line ( this is the part that works with gel). You basically mirror the 1st tape line without disturbing the flake too much. Then spray 30-40 mils of clear gel, and sand of 15-20 til its all straight. You can then buff out the shine.

Hope this helps.

 

[Chris1956]

I still do not think red is an proper color for a boat, despite it's popularity. Red is a "hot" color, and not in a good way. White, Teal, green, blue and silver are cool and kool colors. JMO

 

[undone]

Like zool said, use PVA for curing the final layer, wax will cloud clear gel coat.

Duratec clear isn't as UV resistant as normal clear gel coat, but it will allow it to spray better, the downside is it will yellow sooner