Gel-coat silhouette

[FNQCairns]

My boat had this big black painted name down the side, I took my time and sanded this ugly thing off but it left a very easily seen silhouette/discoloration behind. I was hoping I could with sanding and buffing get rid of it, well I just tried with wet and dry 240 then machine cut and buffed hard. It has reduced but is still easily seen.

My Q is has the gel coat been permanently discolored through it's depth or will I with more work find the end of it? This art work was probably 25 years old and the contrast is great between it and just the old surface even after the old surface has been buffed.

Anyone with experience in hard cases such as this??

thanks fnq.

[brad72]

without seeing it i would say that the gelcoat that was under the stickers has been protected while the rest of the boat has faded. I have seen this on much younger boats and even then it is very difficult to fix. more than likley if you keep sanding you will sand right through the gelcoat. If the signs were painted on I think it would have much the same effect as well as leaving behind the discolouration from the black paint, unfortunatly i think the only way around it would be to have the area touched up. If you have done a lot of sanding with 240g paper it won't take long to sand through and that will look much worse.

I don't think that there will be a quick fix for this problem it's just a matter of weather or not you can live with it or weather or not you want to spend the money on getting it sprayed.

I hope this has helped you out.

[gavsgonefishing]

FNQ,

I, afraid its all bad news. Had the same dramas with the Markham. My decals were stuck on. They had been on since the 80's. took them off, then sanded and sanded and sanded, then cut and buffed the whole surface, the result?. an outline of the decal on the hull. It was a lot better, but you could still see it.

I ended up spraying it with putty, rubbing back then top coating with two pac.

When I striped the paint off this time round to prep it for the gelcoat, the same shadow was sitting in the gelcoat.

No probs this time

[rajawolf]

FNQ,

I had the same problem and did what you have done, still could see it.

As I decided to repaint the hull, I tested to see how far I could go before I was down to zero gelcoat or the old sticker outline was gone.

It went all the way to zero, I needed to do this so I would know for future reference.

[FNQCairns]

Thanks fella's, I sort of guessed it was a no hope sort of deal but needed to be sure before I start planing to painting just the sides - Bugger!!
Gav did your gelcoating work for you??

Thanks fnq

[gavsgonefishing]

Got the hull to work , had some dramas with the top half, especially the gunnels I made up myself

[brad72]

FNQcairns,
do you need to repaint the whole side or is it possible to match the colour and just touch it up?

[FNQCairns]

That's good Gav almost finished now? I dont think I have it in me to redo the gelcoat on this thing, possibly in a year or two when it has paid me back some, I am cooked!

Brad sorry I dont know what you mean the hull is gelcoat do you mean retouch that?

cheers fnq

[brad72]

It sounds to me like you are planning to repaint the entire sides of the boat to cover the effected area, if you can get a good colour match you should be able to just touch up the effected area without to much trouble, if the rest of the gelcoat is in resonable condition.or mabye i have misunderstood what you are saying.

[FNQCairns]

Thanks Brad the boat is 18 foot and the old name took up a lot of the side - too big for me to retouch with gelcoat + the rest is fairly faded but would have come back well enough for a fishing boatof mine.
Dont like paint it just doesn't have the "class of glass" but it will do in the mean time or forever, whichever comes first

Thanks for the replys, cheers fnq

[deb]

If you do opt to do a light re-glass, BBJ is doing up a ancient 18ft cox-craft now. He used some talc powder, yes talc powder, in the resin to colour match the white. And it worked
just a thought..

[FNQCairns]

Thanks Dreamdays, I think BBJ has a lot more experience than me!. I will be taking the cowards path this time. It's orange anyway, white will be nice. cheers fnq