Gelkote question

[grinfax]

I have a 1982 30' sailboat and the Gelkote is wearing off at some spots. Most of the boat is OK, but there are spots like the photo attached. I asked a guy at the marina how much to paint the deck, he told me about 4 to 6K plus marina fees. It's beyond my budget and would cost about half the price of the boat.

He also told me I could buy Gelkote, mix in white colorant, go to Home Depot and buy a $4 one time use spray bottle and spray the Gelkote on. Then sand, polish and wax. I don't have to do the entire deck, only the spots where it's worn down.

Now, I have done enough work on my boat to know it's never so simple. Has anyone done this type of patch job? Are there any tutorials on the web? It sounds like I seriously could mess up my boat if I don't do this right.

Thank you,
Kim

[sailingfool]

Actually I don't think you would mess it up seriously, whatever you put on the boat, you are likely to find you can easily remove, assuming you mask everthing properly. That said, it takes an artist's eye to match gelcoat, and you and I are not likely to do a good job, whatever gelcoat you apply is likely to stand out like a sore thumb. To fix this problem you need to paint the deck. Painting the deck is a lot of work, a BIG JOB, 90% prep work, but it isn't a high skill job. If you don't kike the result, you can do it over. There are some good threads on deck painting on sailnet.com, but Mangomadness's is without compare:
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-m...skid-pics.html

[sailingdog]

Painting the deck is just labor intensive, but not doesn't require all that much special skill... Rolling and tipping most modern paints is relatively easy to do, but as SF points out, 95% of the work and the results are from doing a good prep job.

The small disposable sprayers he's talking about are called Prevals, and they're pretty handy. I keep a couple around for small jobs. They're not extremely expensive either.

[kuhlmey66]

kim ;
For starters find a hatch lid with matching gelkote ,remove and take to local boat repair facility . ask them to match the gelkote ,make sure to get plenty for future repairs.
2nd looks like your gelkote can be rolled on great eaiser to blend -less work.
gelkote + styrene + mekp styrene to thin mekp= hardner
temp of day /temp of boat critical mekp heats from within think cool day cloudy shaded boat.
check out different rollers to see which matches your pattern best.
as you see kim you can do this.
if you need more help would be glad to assist and walk through.
kurt