Greetings I have an older Grady circa 1973 and was wondering if anyone had the secret formula to get a good color match for the gelcoat. Spectrum doesn’t go back that far. Wondering if there was another avenue. Thanks in advance.
Older Grady gel coat repair question
- Thread starter dzeman
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Hookup1
GreatGrady Captain
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- Cape May, NJ
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- Islander
I have a 1997 268 Islander and it is severely faded. Spectrum color didn't even come close. You are going to need to hand tint it. My advice is to find a good glass guy in your area or tine yourself.
There is a very good video from years ago on the Bpatworks Today you tube channel. It isn't simple though but Andy offers tips on how to color match and blend for a very good match.Your first step though is to revive the gel coat as best you can. Depending on how bad it is, you may need to get to the wet sanding , compounding and polishing stages first and then work on the color match. His video is geared toward relatively large areas of gel coat which are easier to do ( easy is a relative word) as opposed to small touch ups. In the later case to get good results, you need a good eye for color and awareness that blending over a much wider area than the small spots is necessary for top notch results.
Even if Spectrum did go back that far, it woudn't match anymore. There's too many years on your boat (sun, time, etc) and your gel is now a different color than it was in '73. As noted, it would have to be custom tinted - which is hard to do since it dries to a slightly different color. Experience - or lot's of trial and error - is the key. You'd also need to give the existing gel a good compound/buffing/wetsand, first.
Do you NEED it to match perfectly? Could you just fill it with something like PC-11 which will dry to a "very slightly" off white color?
Do you NEED it to match perfectly? Could you just fill it with something like PC-11 which will dry to a "very slightly" off white color?
It would help at this point to know more about the specific issue with the boat's hull. Faded and/or oxidized gel coat is one thing but actual repair of small things like scratched to more complex things like blisters, gouges, spider, or deep cracks is a very different story.
Also lets not confuse an epoxy patch with new gelcoat. Granted in many cases a bit of epoxy paste like MarineTex will suffice especially if you tint it, that is not a fix for more seriously damaged areas.
If you want to tint epoxy or polyester resins, you can do so with something like
Also lets not confuse an epoxy patch with new gelcoat. Granted in many cases a bit of epoxy paste like MarineTex will suffice especially if you tint it, that is not a fix for more seriously damaged areas.
If you want to tint epoxy or polyester resins, you can do so with something like
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Keep in mind that if the repair is inside the cabin, or other less direct-exposed areas ( high up under the bow flare on the hull side, for example ) it will probably have faded less than full exposure areas, so the original gelcoat color may be OK .