Looking for a Responsible Gelcoat Supplier

[turnershells]

I'm giving up on the gelcoat supplier I've used in Canada for the past couple of years. I've had my first warranty claim thanks to a gallon of unpromoted gelcoat last winter (it's now lifting and bubbling) and I'm having problems with a batch of black tooling gelcoat on a plug.
As a background, when I built my first plug I got to the stage of using a Devilbiss spraygun and 8oz. pressure cup, and I could apply and sand two touchup coats per day when fairing up my plug.
The batch I'm using now will only fully dry if you leave the plug outside in full sunshine for a day. Which means, right now, instead of touching up and fairing the plugs today, I've got heat lamps on them to try to get a section dry enough to carry the parts outside. This is the third time I've done this now. Adding extra DEA meant the stuff dried okay, but I spent a full day fixing up the spraygun after the material went off in the gun.
So it looks like I can't rely on this company to supply a consistent product, and I can't very well try guestimating the correct amounts of promoters to make a decent batch.
Anyone have glowing praise for a company that can supply a gallon at a time of quality product?

regards,

Matt Turner
Turner Racing Shells Ltd.

[aguest]

Polyguard has always done me right! Ricki

I should add as a footnote that it turns out that pareticular can of tooling gelcoat had nothing wrong with it. It was a polyester formulation, and was expected to take one week to dry.
The stuff I was used to was vinylester tooling gelcoat, and it has far superior qualities in terms of re-coat times etc.
I don't really see any application for a tooling gelcoat that takes a week to dry - in commercial use, that's too long to wait, and for hobbyist use, it's a false economy and really too difficult to work with.

Regards,

Matt Turner
Turner Racing Shells Ltd.

[Timm]

I have had the best luck with Ferro Gelcoats, especially for tooling. For all you old timers out there missing the days when tooling gel had lead in it, you can still get it from Ferro. We used this product with good success at a production company I worked for a few years ago. Just make sure you take proper safety precautions and don't sand it unless absolutely necessary! Their web address is www.ferro.com.

Since you used the wrong product, perhaps you should go to your current supplier and limit your use to the correct product.

I am sure there are people who want/need a 1 week cure time.

[guyan]

sounds like you are a professional. i'm new, so bear with me.
i'm looking for someone who can tell me how to get the gel coat look done on a motorcycle gas tank? i want to reproduce the old 50's style fish scale metallic?

[turnershells]

You can get metallic flakes to add to a clear gelcoat - should also work with other gelcoats, but I haven't tried this. Fairly important to spray a thick consistency, so you'll need to use a pressure tank to feed your gun. That's good practice, anyway, but in this case, if the flakes settle in the finish you won't get good results.

Not sure if you're supposed to spray a thin, clear coat, then dust with flakes, or actually mix the flakes in with the gelcoat. I suspect it's the former, then you add more gelcoat on top of this to build up the layer. Probably will depend on exactly what you want the finish to look like.

If you mix the flakes into the gelcoat before spraying, you may need an agitator on the pressure tank. I've got a Devilbiss 2ga. tank with agitator, and they're not cheap. You use the same setup to spray fillers when building up a plug - I've been using "Featherfill" in the past.

Hope that helps a bit.

Matt Turner
Turner Racing Shells Ltd.