Many coats of gelcoat to hide primer issue

[KD8NPB]

For a lake boat in red color, you're really better off with paint.

Gelcoat for exterior UV protection is best in black, white, or shades of gray.

 

[aaronhl]

For a lake boat in red color, you're really better off with paint.

Gelcoat for exterior UV protection is best in black, white, or shades of gray.

Yea it's going to turn pink and oxidize in no time but im sure spending most of the days in the yard with a cover will help
I really just wanted to do the same as original and learn to work with gelcoat at the same time

 

[aaronhl]

Duratec does come in red, but it would be a bit tricky to get that color.

Dump guns are the lowest level of tech you can get. If you need to put a lot of gel coat down quickly they do work though.

A 2.5 mm tip is too small for doing a large job, you need at least a 3mm.

So I wish I bought a dump gun last year when I started my boat painting project, what a waste of time messing with HVLP guns and thinning the gelcoat !!
Today I used a DUMP GUN for the first time and I was able to hide the gray primer very easily (I DIDNT THIN WITH ACETONE)
It was like holding on to a fire hose it shot SO much red gel out of it the gray disappears after a few coats !!
There is a little learning curve because of how heavy the gun is and making sure it's in the right position so it doesnt leak, I also had to get a cleaning process down so I didnt have cured gelcoat blowing chunks, after the first round I got the process down... I will be re-sanding the whole boat again top and bottom and then putt another layer of red since i got some chunks and want it to match the lower half I had to thin (slight color difference) Here are the pictures...will move onto the cabin gel spraying soon, I am excited because this dump gun is going to make it A LOT easier, now I just have to figure out out how to not get trapped in when spraying

 

[Anthony Garifo]

Gelcoat was never intended to be used as an extensive overcoat, outside of a mold. It's always better, if possible, to use a top quality marine topcoat paint from Alexseal,Interlux, Awlgrip, etc. Gelcoat is too often misused as an extensive topcoat. Spot repairs are acceptable. Both spraying and tipping on a smaller boat will provide better results than trying to coat a large, non-mold, surface with a polyester gelcoat.

 

[aaronhl]

OK so I think I am done with the gelcoat spraying for now, will need to wet sand and polish it, seems like I need to go down to 320 or 220 wet to start and then work my way up...but anyways with the gelcoat dump gun and some good quality gelcoat I had no issues with hiding the primer behind it, check out the pics and give me some good ideas on how to wet sand and polish