Hello- I recently did a somewhat major fiberglass repair on a warn through Keel on my touring sea kayak. I’m having just a little issue doing some of the finishing work as I need it as clean and professional as possible (trying to sell). My issue specifically is the Gel-coat is a bit translucent in certain spots. So my question is; can I spray some white paint to fix this detail or another coat of gel-coat? Thanks for your time!
Brad
Have you considered adding a keel strip?
There is nothing wrong with using paint to cover translucent gelcoat. Lots of folks use paint for final finish of canoe/kayak repairs.
I did ad a keel strip using 3 inch cloth.
Awesome! great to know!! Any recommendations of paint kind? Marine, glossy, mattte?
In my opinion I would have used automotive paint over the repair. I use gelcoat in the molds.
humm. interesting. It sure would have been a lot easier. Seaward rep suggested the Gell-coat
Can you get automotive paint in a spray can or do you have to get a spray gun?
If the area that needs recoating is relatively small–not like a major part of the hull, applying gel coat is not hard and will cover worn and scratched areas better than paint. There might be a few more steps involved, but it’s a very good thing to learn how to do gel coat. There are a bunch of videos on youtube and I’m sure if you search for it on your browser, you’ll find a bunch of instructional media. Actually there is another post on here somewhere where I and others have explained the whole procedure.
Cool, thanks! If I were to do it again I probably would have thinned the gel-coat and done several layers rolling and tipping. it was a pretty smallish area so I thought I could get away with a thicker single coat but that proved to be somewhat inadequate as here i am. Haha.
Personally…I would use gel coat and do it wit the same stuff the factory used when making the kayak. If the factory didn’t paint the boat , I wouldn’t either. Paint doesn’t hold up the same as gel. If you have some areas in your repair that don’t have enough color. The problem wasn’t the gel covering, it was the pigment was lacking in your gel mix. I also don’t use epoxy to repair any kayak that was made with Polyester or any other ester resin. I like them fixed and coated with the same the factory uses. YMMV
My understanding is that you’re done with the repairs and gelcoat and just looking to cover some translucent gelcoat. I don’t think you need to be too fussy about the type of paint. You definitely don’t need to buy or rent a paint gun. I have a Kevlar canoe with gelcoat and it has a few areas that need a gelcoat touch-up. I won’t try to color match the gelcoat to the sand color exterior…I’ll just use translucent gelcoat and then buy a can of spray paint (like Krylon) in the closest color I can find. I had a fiberglass canoe that needed some repairs after I punched a couple holes in it and the experienced guy that patched it just used ordinary spray paint to cover the patches on the tan interior and white exterior. As far as gloss vs matte vs semi-gloss I’d pick whatever is closest to the original color.
I’ll do that today! Thanks.
I agree. I did contact the rep for information of materials used.