am i mad

hey ive been reading for months about how to re.gel my boat roof after some nut painted it with about 5 coats of International Interdeck Deck Paint,im living the the uk and still have good warm days left this season.please advise painting is not an option.The gelcoat left is still in good conditon apart from very small hair line cracks around

 

Hi Jamie

I would not paint it or re-gel coat it as you describe.
I would suggest you consider 'flow coating' it. http://www.westsystem.com/ss/

Flow coating it is a one off job and will seal any leaking problems as it dries hard like plastic, which once hardened you can also polish.

Some say brush it on, but we had much better results and finish by rollering it on (3" roller), 'do NOT mix a load at one go', just enough that you can use in say 15 minutes as it will go off due to being a two pack system.

We did a few test pieces first, not cheap but a one off job !

Another tip is cover everything in sight, as it easily splashes and sets quick and you will not get it off.

Good Luck !

Mike

 

Flow coating is an option, though I wouldn't recommend it for the novice, as a lot of things can go wrong, producing more problems and it will not seal anything, except very small cracks, unless bulked up with something.

Gel coat is an option, though again, not something that a novice will have great success with, right out of the box. In fact, I've never seen a driveway or back yard gel coat job come out very well, if the person was doing it for the first time. This said, if you have gel coat experience, you'll probably fair well, mostly because you'll understand the prep and issues that can crop up.

In most cases paint is the preferred application, after the gel coat is worn out, for the novice applicator, for the above (and other) reasons. I can understand your desire for gel coat, so surface prep is now the next order of business. Fortunately, both paint and gel coat need the same prep (pretty much). First thing to do is very carefully and completely clean the surface of any contaminates, particularly silicones, after stripping all the hardware off the painted areas.

 

Gel coat over possibly a wood cabint top? or is it fibre glass ??
gel coat on its own has no guts and the slightest bit of movment it will crack no matter how good a job you make . Remember also any othe colour except white will draw heat and heat leads to exspansion and contraction so coloured areas will get warmer in the the sun than white places !!. the absolute ideal paint needs to be rubbery !!! gel coat is deffinatly not rubbery and why you got fine cracks and spider webs ! a mater of fact gel coat is like egg shell and without glass fibres to hold it together it will just do the same again !!. so make up your own mind . there must be a deck tread type pait available for that purpose !!:idea:

 

Tunnels, my understanding is he's working with a previously painted gel coated surface. He's removed or will remove the paint, have found the gel coat in pretty good shape. The next step is fix the cracks, fair the surface, then prep for more gel coat or paint.

 

Paint not more gel coat !!

 

I agree Tunnels, but the original poster seems to want gel coat.

 

Gel coat could simply do exatly the same thing again !!

 

Hi it's glass

 

gelcoat and how

theres a few thing i need to know. (1) is rollor on flowcoat then sand smooth(2) spray a few coats of gel then add wax for the last. or pva(3) use 1.1 with duratec high gloss 904-040 living in the uk can find 904-001.BUT and a big but is spraying 6sq meters in one go to much and is duratec only for small repairs