Gelcoat vs. paint (LP)?

[mattotoole]

I'm wondering about re-gelcoating vs. painting (LP). Everyone tries to make their gelcoat last as long as possible, thinking that once it's painted it will never be the same. But I'm not so sure. LP is pretty neat stuff. Which do you think is better, not so much for initial finish quality, but durability, repairability, color matching, etc? How about re-gelcoating vs. painting?

[Raggi_Thor]

LP needs less (none) upkeep work, wash it once in a while, no waxing, rubbing, polisshing. My painter (a car paint shop in the sae house) sais that regular car paint lasts at last five years (on boats), while LP lasts more than twice as long. Of course this depend on the environment, we don't have much uv radiation here, 60-70 degrees north.

[Capt. Chris]

mattotoole,
LP is the way to go! I am in the process of finish a project and am using a waterborne LP. It is a llittle tricky to spray, but once you get it down it looks great and is rock hard. In my opinion re-gel is old school at this point in time as the technology in coatings has advanced so much just in the past few years. I think it has its place in new boat building because this is the process it was designed for. Good luck and save up some $ ... LP coatings with the primers are mucho bucks!
Capt. Chris

[mojounwin]

Just a question from a newie,
What does LP stand for? Is it linear Polyurethane?

[SamSam]

Originally Posted by mattotoole

I'm wondering about re-gelcoating vs. painting (LP). Everyone tries to make their gelcoat last as long as possible, thinking that once it's painted it will never be the same. But I'm not so sure. LP is pretty neat stuff. Which do you think is better, not so much for initial finish quality, but durability, repairability, color matching, etc? How about re-gelcoating vs. painting?

This isn't about gel coating vs. painting (don't even think about re-gelcoating) but just to suggest maybe you don't need to do either. If your gelcoat looks bad, maybe all it needs is to be attacked with a buffing/polishing compound and a buffing wheel to remove the haze and then re-waxed.

[mattotoole]

Originally Posted by SamSam

This isn't about gel coating vs. painting (don't even think about re-gelcoating) but just to suggest maybe you don't need to do either. If your gelcoat looks bad, maybe all it needs is to be attacked with a buffing/polishing compound and a buffing wheel to remove the haze and then re-waxed.

Well, that's always been the attraction with gelcoat, it can always be renewed. But only up to a point. After 20-30 years a lot of boats look pretty faded and tired, and only a fresh coat of somthing will do the trick.