gelcoating the whole boat down to the waterline

Well I’m looking for new info on this process of gelcoating the whole boat down to
the waterline.
I have purchased 2 gal of 180 clear gelcoat and 2 gal of 904-001 clear hi gloss additive.
This restoration is pure cosmetic. There a a few bings and a couple scratches which I know how to take care of.
The bottom of the boat has never been landed on a beach, not a bleamish that I can see.
Thus I’m not going to touch below the waterline.
As for the rest of this 2008 Ranger Reata 2250ss I’m going to gel coat the entire surface with the exception on the interior floor.
Looking at adding in two colors into the scream of the boat, one of the original colors blue l will be just changing the color just so slightly. I picked up 3 pints form Ranger of the original blue but it’s my intention to change it so slightly by adding in another shade and blending in the clear coat additive. Then adding glitter/ metal flake over it again mixed in a clear coat.
The original white will get a coat of clear gel follow with pear abalony and which I will be mixing in .015 and . 025 white metal flake.
There will also red added to the boat giving it that red, white, and blue theam.
All the colors will be glitter colored to match corresponding base colors then followed with 2 coats of clear min.
Forgot to mention that separation between each color will a 1/2 wide pin stripe.
Day 1 will be a 1/2 “wide gold metal flake pin stripe. Going to do some practicing on the pin stripe to see how I have to mask off this whole operation. My goal is to lay down the pin stripe in gold and follow yo with a clear coat the same day. Let it kick remove tape and sand hopefully that evening.
Day two wipe down and mask off blue area wipe off and shoot blue then clear coat mixed with glitter and follow up with clear coat pull tape and sand that evening.
Day 3 mask off and prep for red. Then glitter flake and follow up w/ clear , again in the evening sand
Day 4 final color change coats, lay down clear gel coat over the original white then follow with my glitter coat, then finish off with one cliar coat.
Unmask and quick wipe down all the previous areas and make sure it has all been sanded I figure by this time in the day I will still have about 6 hours of light left.
As soon as the last clear tacks up, about an hour after last coat I will be able to start my last coats of straight clear.
These coats I will continue spraying 1/1 mix and checking at finish to see if one more coat needs to be added.
My problem is only having 2 guns both being gravity guns. One with a 2.5 tip to spray my metal flakes and 1.5 to shoot the straight gel coat.
My compressor is over sized and new, and I do have a backup just incase.
I’m trying to figure out just how I go about masking this project off.
Any ideas would be helpful.
I have over 10 weeks to prep for this.
All materials are purchased.
Have read hundreds of opinions from past experiences but non that have dates of less than a couple years.

 

Seems like almost a copy and paste question from another site. You got good answers there, most said it’s a very ambitious project for a first timer.

Start slow, do some testing, see what you are actually capable of doing, then make a plan based on that.

 

Sorry to hear negative comments.
It’s only a problem if you don’t have a clue. Being the last 30 some years I’ve spent my life creating from scratch, designing, building, turn key projects many of my own and including up to 500,000,000,00 projects placed in my hands to accomplish.
Don’t get me wrong, this will be a piece of cake.
Just looking for expert advice on how to accomplish this mask off.
I’m planing to do a mock-up and try several scenarios prior to the spray.
And find my best recipes for batching to get the best lay down.

 

These comments aren’t negative, more like realistic.

Nobody can tell you how to tape it off because we have no clue what the pattern may be. That’s why you lay it out on a test panel and see if it works.

One method of the pin stripe is to spray each main color, pull the pinstripe tape, and then spray the stripe without taping anything off. When you sand it down it will remove the overspray from the stripe that’s on each main color. And there will be no difference in height between each color

 

I think if I'd had charge of $5 Billion projects (lost count of the noughts) I'd just pay someone to do it.

 

My pleasure has always been accomplishing something that is in my focus rather than passing it on to others.
Yes I could pass this on to someone that does it for a living, and yes they would make money on it but the problem I see if like many shops is that they Cary to much overhead. And I don’t pay for overhead.
Sure I live completely comfortable, but that’s because I have been a “can do” guy.
So if I had

 

This is gel coat plan I’m going to do. Plan on setting up a couple cameras and documenting the shoot along with a few flash points of the prep and sanding so that I may be able to help others.
If you look at the finished photo that I have here take note it was done with paint work
on my computer.
The final will all be just a little darker and it’s contrast will all be done with old school metal flake.
All the yellow is gold and penny copper flake. All the color change boarders will also be band in the gold.
This craft is a center console ranger boat with only 50 hours on it.
If you have read my thoughts on how I think I should stack this in some of my previous forums I would like to hear your thoughts.
Thanks

 

That’s a some what easier tape job than I expected, the colors don’t overlap,
cris-cross or intertwine like on many bass boats. At least from what I can see in the pic.

On your test panel try the tape method I mentioned earlier, see how that works for you.

Pulling the tape is a skill that takes some practice, the timing of when to pull is critical too.

You need to pull the tape shorty after you spray, if it starts to gel you’ll have problems.

 

Thanks ondarvr,
Looking at hiding out the area in blue that needs to be white in my new scream with white I got from ranger in my first shoot.
Then follow up with spraying the pinstripe and gold area and putting on one coat of clear over the top so it can be sanded and taped over.
I’m shooting Fiber Glass 180 mixed 1/1 with Duratec 904-001 in all shoots.
This will allow me to possibly do 3 days spray in one day.
Or not , just going to see how my practice shoots go.

 

Don’t just automatically go to a 1/1 blend with the Duratec, each gel coat and each color will respond differently. So test it to see what works best with each one.

 

Not shooting much color and the color is gel coat straight from Ranger. That I will thin down with Duratec as they recommend me to do.
Being the only color I’m worried about for color coverage is the white over the blue I may shoot it with 25 percent mix. See how it covers.
90 percent of my gel coating will either be clear with colored metal flake and straight clear,
And they recommend 1/1 mix and larger tip for the flake.
The colored flake that I’m blending will do 95 percent of the color on this boat

 

I’m walking a friend through a similar project right now, this from over the weekend.

 

Ok I’ve been thinking about the bottom of the boat.there a sad few creases/ foil lines on the bottom of the boat that are below the waterline and I’d like to color them with gelcoat and Duratec mix 1/1 .
Question is do I need to mix wax in with this? The boat will never sit in the water for over a week. And 99 percent pulled out every day.