Re: What is a gelcoat and do I have one on my boat???
I am new to refinishing boats and I just bought my first fiber glass boat and i'm lost... I'm guessing that a gelcoat is like polyurethane is to wood. Its a 14ft boat built 30-40 years ago. I've been reading about repainting it and I don't think it has a gelcoat. There is no gloss or sheen and it is an ugly aqua. Am i right to assume there is no gelcoat? And if I am correct, is there anything I need to do but clean and sand it for new coats?
hi tony.....welcome to i boats
that aqua blue stuff............is gellcoat.!
kinda a robins egg blue
it was popular in the 60's and early seventies.
see the first page of the hull extensoin thread and see if that is the color.
and the last 5 pages.....if you had any thoughts of re gellcoating.
gellcoat is a really good....hard....type of pigmented polyester based resin......(there is a lot more to it than that ....but that is a laymans explanation)
it can outlast any paint that you would care to put on.....
i take it that you hate the color........well that's ok......its your boat
in order to paint the boat....just scuff the gellcoat with a minimum of 600 grit paper......this will clean the gellcoat and prep it to hold paint.....search emmeron and awl grip........(two very popular boat paints....each has there own drawbacks)
if you dont want to paint....and just make the boat look like new.....thats easy.......just sand the boat with 800 grit paper....then 1000 then use a polishing compound, then wax......your boat will look like it did when it came out of the show room......
that is the basics of it.......and btw......you really do not want to "re gellcoat" the boat
cheers
oops
