dark color best results

[gbf03]

I am planning on repainting or regelcoating my 20 with a garnet color for the outside hull. What will I have the best results with? I was wondering is gelcoat harder to work with when it is a color other than white, becuase of all the sanding that takes place afterwords or is there going to be the same as ussual. Is there a certain brand of paint or gelcoat that has better results with darker colors or is there a certain procedure that has better results?
Thank you
George [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[tank]

my 2cents says to paint the hull. give or take a few hours labor, the end result will be a long lasting shine (8 to 10 yrs) and low maintenance. a dark color gel coat will begin to "chaulk-up" in 3 to 5 yrs. dark colors be it gelcoat or paint will always show scraches and dings whereas lighter colors tend to hide those problems alittle better. but there's nothing like the glossy shine of dark paint job!!!.......good luck

[Scott]

George
I'm not a painter ... but have been told many a time dark colors in general are the hardest colors to work with. If the fairing job is not perfect you will see every imperfection in the hull. Dark Gelcoat will show the oxidation much faster and end up looking like garbage. PLUS I've heard dark is undesirable in warm locations due to the amount of heat it absorbs which can in turn damage the fiberglass. (I don’t know if this is true for a boat that is many years old and has been weathered)
I would also be inclined to think that a dark gelcoat would take a lot of work to buff it up after all the sanding that will be needed to fair it out after its application .... to get that "wet look"....Lighter colors / white are more forgiving. I will say dark colors do look awesome when done properly.

Food for thought
A boat up here was recently painted (professionally) a dark green. While the painter thought it was faired and prepared properly, after it was painted the old name, which was thought to have been properly and fully removed, came through the new paint job, you could read the name perfectly ...also evident was "print through" from the fiberglass woven roven layup ...you could see the weave in the fiberglass!!! [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] It had to be completely redone !!!! [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[tank]

yeah i agree with scott, a good paint job is 90% prep work. that's true with any type of finish work, still you can't beat a nice paint job.

[fishez4alivin]

I know how hard gel coating is and i would never encourage anyone to do it, especially with a dark color. I thought I'd regelcote my 20 MA black..yeah i know a horrible color to work with.....but i tried....I applied the gelcote and made several coats until i figured after sanding and polishing I'd have no problem with sand thru. Let me give you a very discouraging scenario.....you begin the wetsanding process...first with 800 wet dry, then 1000, then 12000, then 1500, as you are about to finish, you accidentally sand thru the gelcote trying to smooth out the very finest of of imperfections.....I tried to just regelcoat that area, and resand, but found that i sanded thru even more, and after finally getting it to where i thought it was good, I began the polishing process with 3M...only to find spots that werent sanded thru, but so thin you could almost detect the off white underneath...Regelcoting is hard and tedious....it frustrated me, so i finally succumbed to the fact it was too much work and primed the whole hull, and re sanded with 220 and top coated with Sterling Black, two coats, and four coats of clear coat, i sanded smooth with 220 between each coat. It was time consuming, but i got a finish that no one can tell is brushed and tipped. Ive used Awl Grip, Ameron, and Sterling, and in my opinion, Sterling was the best in getting the spray look from brushing, just remember to never to stop once you start, always have the reducer nearby, because if enough evaporates you will get sagging or runs. I would roll with a thin foam, solvent resistant roller, and tip with a badger hair brush. The way I decided if i had enough reducer on a given day, was to roll some paint on a glass pane, and tip it....if i got sags, i would add a little more reducer and re roll it, until i got the desired results....My opinion is stay away from regelcoting