Gel coat vs. paint?

No it's not, at least if you don't want to be able to see the patch. You can color match, sand and buff a gelcoat patch. You cannot patch LP without seeing it. The only LP that is sort of patch is Alexseal but it's a bearcat to do.
Besides that the best paint is still only paint, not as thick or tough as gelcoat. A bump of the dock that would be nothing to gelcoat goes right through your paint

 

Acrylic Urethanes such as Awlcraft and car paints are formulated to be easy to touch up and they work very well, car paints have to touch up easily and awlcraft is just a copy. On the other hand gelcoats are will definatly withstand abuse better because they are much thicker (also much heavier)

 

You're right about that, Awlcraft is a great alternative to Awlgrip, especially for hulls, which tend to get dinged up, a little less durable but repairable. Always thought about trying UA base coat/clear coat on a boat but as yet have not had the opportunity

 

Never had any luck with clear coat. UV damages it, it yellows and its hard to buff , repair.

Awlcraft is OK. I still prefer awlgrip. Very long lasting.

With a gelcoated boat the lifecycle is...repair dings and scratchs with gelcoat each season and then after 10 or 15 years, when the whole hull is covered in gelcoat repairs...bite the bullet and Awlgrip it.

Im doing a small gelcoat repair this week. Very difficult to fair the surface in without damaging a large area of gelcoat. Then when the new gelcoat is applied , its difficult to match the colour and it must be wet sanded and buffed to achieve a finish. This transom gel repair looks OK, like someone takes care of the boat...but You can easily see the repair. If the boat was painted I would have repainted the whole transom. Same amout of labour.

 

Weve used a lot of car paint on our own boats for years while using Awlgrip or Awlcraft on customers boats.(boatowners have drank the Awlgrip coolaid and we dont try to fight it) To be honest weve never done the clearcoat but i dont see why it wouldnt work fine, cars have to endure just as much UV as boats. I have not noticed any more durability from Awlgrip and prefer the repairability of Awlcraft and the auto paints. Where i live a car has a much harder life than a boat except boats tend to scrape things more often but cars have to put up with what amounts to hurricane force wind driven sand and salt everytime they drive down the highway in the winter as well as withstand the UV for years.

Steve.

 

Give Clear a try !

Over white it yellows. The when you go to patch original awlgrip white, the new colour is different .

On topsides , at fender mark points, it scratches and is impossible to buff out.

Clear is Ok if the paint is old and you need to make it last another year.

These days I prefer to use the new Nano sealer polish on old paint. Easy to applie and good for a season

 

The old clear coats used to yellow and get cloudy, but not any more Michael, especially the acrylics. These new paint systems can last a couple of decades with reasonable care, a decade with no care and still take a buff and look good.

 

Micheal, it seems to me that a car would get at least as much if not more UV exposure than a boat hull and the clearcoats last forever, perhaps your experience is with Awlgrips clearcoat which may be different chemistry,maybe more akin to Awlgrip than Awlcraft, just guessing. We have a Wylie 40 cold molded boat in the area that spent the first 10 years of its life bright finished with Awlgrips clearcoat, when it was time to refinish they painted it, i dont know how the clearcoat failed.

Steve.