Gel coat, Paint or Vinyl Wrap

BoaterDan278 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:00 pm

I would like to hear some of your opinions. I have a teal gel coat area on my boat. Oxidation has always been a problem. At first, I could wax it at the beginning of each season and it would look great. After a few years, I needed to use an oxidation remover, wax it and that would renew the shine. The last couple of years we have had to remove the oxidation mid way through the season to keep it nice. Now it looks as though the gel coat is wearing thin. I have approached a couple of gel coat repair companies and they seem reluctant to spray gel coat. I talked with automobile paint shops and they will paint it, but I am afraid that auto paint would scratch too easily. I talked to a company at the boat show, they advocated a vinyl wrap. I don’t know if the vinyl would be durable enough. Dan

Cap'n Morgan · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:12 pm

A guy at TP Marina had his 1988 Sea Ray 268 painted with Imron. It looks outstanding. Extremly durable.
Imron is what Formula uses on all their boats. That would be the best looking, longest lasting solution IMO.

LouC · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:28 pm

Had the same issue with my 88 H-200, red hull looked good ten years ago because the PO had wetsanded it. I tried over the years, buffing, wetsanding, etc, the gel coat was just shot. Finally could not stand to look at it any more and had it done by a good shop on the South Shore of Long Island in red Imron. Looks outstanding, went from the ugly duckling of the harbor to the swan. Best part is Imron only needs regular washing and once or twice a year waxing, no buffing. So the only part of the boat that is still gelcoat is the topsides which is white and that can be more easily brought back. Colored gelcoats are way too much work. If you want a colored boat, Imron is the way to go.

NOLV4V8 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:25 pm

Lou if you dont mind me asking, what did this cost you?

LouC · **Posted:** Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:32 pm

Well you don't want to know, but I'll tell you it was over 4 grand, this included fixing all the old damage, taking off old stripes, and they painted up to the rubrail, replaced the old oxidized rubrail with a new stainless steel one, and also painted the grey strip above the rubrail as well and buffed out the remaining white gelcoat. It looks GREAT.

Keep in mind that this is Long Island NY prices, our labor rates are close to the highest in the nation and this shop is well known as the best boat painter on Long Island. As an example, my mechanic, who I have not had to use in 6 years, charges $115/hr.

The way I rationalized it is that, one this is our first boat, two, it still meets our needs, and three my son grew up with it and did not want me to sell it to get a newer boat. So yes people can say oh you will never get the money back, sure thats true but that's how boating is. I did increase the amount it is insured for by a lot.
Oh and the other way I rationalized it, was that I was sick of looking at the oxidized gelcoat, and I have saved a ton of money doing all my own work for 10 years on the boat and close to 40 years on my vehicles. I do the winterizing, I do the springizing, I do the tune ups, replace the manifolds, I R+R the drive, I paint the drive with antifouling, I rebuilt the entire trailer (without air tools I might add) and did half of the deck rebuild, replaced all the seats. So I figure I should have a nice looking boat to drive around in, right?
If you love your boat and are keeping it indefinitely, then Imron paint jobs will make it look better than anything else.

ric · **Posted:** Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:36 pm

Imron. Colored gelcoat is good for garage boats used once a month but something like a Vista should have been painted from the start.

My father did his sailboat himself 2 years ago in a dark navy blue hull. Didn't cost that much cause he did everything. Still looks brand new and the boat is docked in salt water in Florida. Looks better then new colored gelcoat.

Capt. Hoss · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2012 9:37 am

I cannot find anything on who much this stuff costs. Does anyone have an idea, I could do the work myself, that would save a ton of money.

Cap'n Morgan · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2012 9:42 am

Capt. Hoss wrote:

I cannot find anything on who much this stuff costs. Does anyone have an idea, I could do the work myself, that would save a ton of money.

Huh ?????

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=imron+paint

LouC · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2012 10:01 am

If you're thinking of spraying Imron yourself, forget that, its one of the most toxic things to spray there is, you need special breathing apparatus and a full air supply suit to spray Imron.

Now for the original question, if there is just a gelcoat strip that is badly oxidized and the rest of the boat is white, and the white can be buffed back to look good, you can do a pretty good job rolling and tipping with a marine paint. No need there for a complete re-paint.

Winter Sux · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2012 7:51 pm

Imron all the way Dan. I know some painters and they all swear by it. They say it's almost bullet proof and even say it never needs waxing.

BoaterDan278 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2012 7:55 pm

Thanks for the opinions. Paul I, if you look at my signature, you will see I have a wedge shaped section on the sides of my boat. That is the only area which needs help, we have literally buffed through the gel coat. We have done oxidation remover on the rest and are pleased with the result.
It is very difficult to find someone who will spray real DuPont Imron. Many have 'just as good' or 'just like Imron'. I also wanted an opinion on its’ viability as a marine top coat. I don't want to spend my monet, only to have it be destroyrd the first time a fender rubs against it. Dan

LouC · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2012 8:27 pm

It will not get destroyed the first time a fender rubs against it, for sure. If its real Imron, keep in mind that Imron, was designed to paint airplanes and tractor trailer trucks. If what they are spaying is not real Imron, then I'd go elsewhere. The other paint that is used a lot in marine applications is Awlgrip.
Formula uses Imron for their graphics, they don't use gelcoat. If it didn't hold up they would not use it.

Painting fiberglass is tricky. I wish that I could have rolled and tipped mine seeing as how its an old boat anyway, but I knew because I did not have a good place to work, the weather here is never clear for more than 5 days at a time and its always humid, it would not have come out the way I'd have wanted.

There are probably other ways to get that strip painted for less than an Imron job, but it also depends on how much you want to pay.

BoaterDan278 · **Posted:** Fri Aug 10, 2012 8:33 am

LouC,
Half asleep last night. Shouldn't have tried to type. Thankfully, and although it was addressed to the wrong person, you responded to my thread. We will go with DuPont Imron. The next step will be finding someone in Western Michigan who can and will paint with the real deal. I have some time as this will be a winter project. Thanks, Dan

LouC · **Posted:** Fri Aug 10, 2012 9:22 am

Great!
Here is the shop that did mine....

http://www.raybomarine.com

www.iFourWinns.com

Gel coat, Paint or Vinyl Wrap

Who is online