gelcoating the whole boat down to the waterline

I’d say yes to the wax, it will dull the finish, but buffing will bring back the gloss.

It will ensure a better surface cure. Wax is recommended when using a lower ratio of Duratec for this reason.

 

My take on it.... Ondarvr posted a pic of my boat..... The 5 different colors will have taken 5 weekends and that will not include the cockpit sole area.

A weekend of wasting gel, playing with gel/904 ratios and correspondance with ondarvr

Between each color, i did wash the exterior with simple green, dry, and wipe with acetone

The patern making took a day to transfer from cad drawing to cardboard templates to make both side the same.

Taping off the red stripe was 3 hours of taping the stripe with 3M tape, then 2 hours of masking.

While I was masking the boat, I also iced down the gel and Duratec 904. Mixing was 5 minutes and actual spraying about 10 minutes.

Then is the difficult time....removing the tape. Have a razor blade available. It took 30 minutes to remove the tape by pealing back on itself.

If you wait too long, the tape is permenant and you have to cut it out.

Then the cure time of a few hours prior to taping the next color.

The grey and black took 3 hours to tape off and mask, about 30 minutes to spray and about an hour to get most of the tape off. About 2 hours cutting the remainder of tape out from under rapidly curing gel

You will peel some of the gel

Fast forward 5 days to the following weekend

3 hours to tape and mask the blue (pic that ondarvr posted)

30 minutes to spray, and 40 mintes of untaping/unmasking

About an hour of re-sanding ovr sprayed areas

Wait for the gel to cure

Next day, spend 4 hours taping and masking stripes and transom

Spend an hour icing the gel and 904 because i forgot

Spray the transom and white in between the stripes. This took about 30 minutes to spray, and about an hour to remove most of the tape, and an additional half hour to hour cutting out the remaining tape.

This is where I left off waiting for gel to cure



Let me prefface, i have been painting hot rods, cars, and trucks for decades. I have had plenty of time on the tools.

Spraying gel is like spraying finicky paint with the consistancy of heavy primer.

Masking takes time
Spraying is easy
Unmasking is the most difficult

 

Thanks I’m getting close to having all the boat sanded removed all the hardware and hinges.
Just finished striping out all the Sea Deck flowing in the front and back so I can clear gel coat around all the compartments with white clear flakes and pearl.
This week I plan on finishing up the sand while her down and getting my layout marked out.
I have it suppended in the air right now so that I could get under her to fix a couple scraped gelcoat spots which are mostly cosmetic but still if I’m going this far may as well fix her back to perfect.
I’ve been taking phone shots and minny Videos
Any one out there that knows how to clip and edit.

 

Ok it would appear you are right handed, with this much action you needed to pull your tape much earlier . Right after you made your last pass. If it’s wet it doesn’t pull or stick. Clean lines pull when wet and I mean wet .
Like you I’ve painted lots of race cars and a few custom paints.
But gel coat is muck it lays like pudding
Pull your tape as soon as you pass.
I’m going to shoot a couple pass shoots to see how it works bot if I’m right I want to pull the tape green to keep from tearing the edge and let the line lay down.
I’ll let you know after this’s weekend shoot.
Going to shoot a test I
On pinstripe, gold and copper clear then 2 coats clear in one pas
Then study my outcome.

 

Scott it looks like you a going to pull off an epic gel coat.
It appears as though you’re just changing the background.
Or are you also overlaying the rest of the pattern in original colors.
I’m going to try a couple tests to see just how to pull my tapes and see I off I need to stack my tapes to keep from contact.
It’s easy to over lay your pull tape by 1/16 inch over your last tape pulled on your clear clear coats and not tear up your lower coat.
Yep I’ve done this with candies, I’ll see if I can doo it with gel coat;
Just takes practice and perfection.
I’ll keep a follow on your progress.
Show it here, likewise like I said I’ll keep showin my progress…

 

Here’s an updated pic from Scott

 

if you're using the 904 gloss additive, even at 1.5%, by the time you get the gun clean and start removing tape, the gel will already have started to set. by the time you get most of the masking off and down to the fine-line tape it will be set pretty well. when I mixed at 2% it was rock hard and I spent hours with a razor blade to remove the tape.

make your first tape off and spray. if you are in a booth, i suggest an inhibitor to extend kicking times. however if you are spraying outside, its a fine line between getting it to kick soon enough and the bugs landing in it prior to you getting the tape off.

BTW, the pic ondarvr posted above was done after an entire day of wet sanding. spent about 20 minutes buffing.

I have about another day of wet sanding more to get to the depth of shine I want and that is just below the cap. I have 50 love bugs to grind out of the gel and spot repair prior to wet-sanding and buffing.

 

you have to post pics to show progress..... LOL

completely changed the color scheme

Gel isnt like paint. paint is slow to kick. I have painted many hot-rods, and pulling tape on a multi-color paint job is easy, especially since the last coats will be clear, you can always repair if needed.

Here is the whole project 1988 Rogue 2420 Page: 1 - iboats Boating Forums | 512516 https://forums.iboats.com/forum/owners-groups-by-manufacturer/a-c/cruisers-yachts/512516-1988-rogue-2420

 

Started the process, the pin stripe around all my colors ate layer out.
And boat is ready to shoot gold , penny copper .015 flake,
10 hours to tape to tape out the whole process tried to shoot it with a gun it seemed to be fine except for it wasn’t concentrating my sparkle on the lines.
So my next step was to brush the lines it took five batches of 16 ounce mixes with 50 g of sparkle in each mix and about four hours.
My last coat over everything I thought I blew it I couldn’t remember if I put in my KP in my mix when I was finished with that batch which also was the last batch of sparkle I had so I let it dry and checked it later on about four hours. It’s seem to of tacked up
Then I tried to pull tape man that was a mistake. I should have pulled tape about three hours prior while it was still consistently tacky some have set up so hard that I had to cut it in this morning I’m a little hesitant about going out into the barn area to look at it.
But this is how she looked last night prior to removing the tape. I know I’m going to have a few little street repairs to make and I’m going to send her down so that I can tape over the top of the gelcoat stripes in preparation

 

Scott Danforth, your project looks Beautiful.
Yeah I wish I had read your last post prior to me with you last night to strip off my tape it was tough I’ve got a few places were pulled in I’m going to have to repair some of my brown stripe but I will get to that today Sandy minutes then repairing it.
looks like I’m going to be on hold here due to weather, but’s that’s a good thing.
It will give me some time to go over what I did wrong on my pinstriping and reflect on the process of my next undertaking in which I plan on shooting the blue the middle flaking on top of the tacky blue and then shoot one coat of clear.
Then as I finish the clarinet tax I won’t pull the tape immediately lesson learned there. I’ve got a long ways to go and maybe a couple more weeks of time and sanding.
Then I have the very last coat to put on which will be a complete shoot of clear over everything and hope she lays on my glass the spray that I did with my striping at first laid down perfectly smooth only had a couple small spots where I had orange peel that was noticeable.
I believe my last clinical will weigh really nice and I will only have a couple 20 or so hours of buffing love to do. I believe someday in the near future I will be able to put this boat into the water.

 

Ok it seams that my last touch up coat is at a tacky state. Yeah it does not come off on my hands should I take some thing like acetone and wipe it down and hope that it takes off that last coat. Or should I just let it stand and see if it cures. I don’t know how it could possibly cure if there was no MAKP added to it to make it crystallizer harden. Is there anything I can do I was thinking about sending it down.
I know adding a new coat over the top of that would not be the solution if anybody reads this and knows possibly of a better solution let me know please

 

OUCH

Feel your pain. Been there before.

Uncured will quickly clog up paper. I use a very sharp carbide hook scraper to remove most of the sticky stuff. Solvents for final cleaning

Sorry for the misfortune

 

k Next will be the blue flag with the white area shown just over the top of the wheel will and all the way forward on the bow between the second gold strip and the third up from the bottom of the boat.
This will get 4 mixes of flake in a clerk coat over the top as soon as the blue tack sand a sand coat of clear to follow up as soon as I make my round. Then bam pull the tape.
I’ll post pics.

 

Not too sure it’s going to be that bad. I scrubbed it down with a acetone and got a good feel for the coat prior. It’s funny how you can feel a good gelcoat. Stopped there now.
I just went out and checked by feel an the whole previous metal flake is tack free. Wow lesson learned. And only cost me 6 to 8 oz. of jell oat over 50 feet of area spread wipe off. It was my final touch up coat any way.
I’ll sand off the entire surface of pin stripe area and wait to touch it up just before my final clearcoat over the whole haul above the water line.
Seriously this gelcoat stuff is great look at my pin stripes took 3 coats and is about 20 mills thick. That’s how it’s all laid down so far can’t hardly wait for the next shoot.

 

told you removing the tape was the hard part.

looking good