Gel Coat VS Marine Paint Comparison| Building Our Project Sailboat

[@geniksonthego8963]

With the amount of new fiberglassing we had done, we could have done gelcoat on the decks. We ended up using AwlGrip and I can tell you that it is likely not the end of our paint work. Spring will tell us if we need to redo it, or just fix the one spot that seemed to have an issue.

[@captainjayc9217]

I used 2-part paint for area repaired with epoxy, such as below water line. I used gelcoat above waterline in areas where I repaired with fiberglass resin. Using gelcoat/fiberglass-resin combo is for minimizing sanding between coats. Using epoxy/2-part-paint combo is to minimize water intrusion below waterline. So far so good.

[@geniksonthego8963]

Interesting! That sounds like a lot of work.

[@JoeLoew]

Also, matching paint color is the same problem whether it's gel coat or top coat. If anything, it's generally harder to match top coat because you have so many choices. Gel coat can be any color as well but few people really bothers with anything other than marine white. Gel coat tends to give a smoother finish because of its chemical makeup, when you roll on anything you are going to notice that it's not perfectly smooth. It's just fine in most cases though. Apples to apples, if you spray them both exactly the same way, gel coat will provide a smoother finish, especially if you get the one with wax in it. Another thing to consider is that when you're repairing gel code, it typically means you're repairing fiberglass too. This makes it a much bigger problem than just updating paint. So sort of not a fair comparison. All in all it sounds like I'm promoting gel coat, but actually I prefer painting. Tell code is harder to work with because of all the reasons I mentioned but I can't argue with the fact that it looks pretty damn good and it's very durable

[@geniksonthego8963]

I hear what you’re saying. After we painted, we ended up running into some minor issues with the finish, so we will have some fixing to do. When we do our hull, we are going to be doing a coloured metallic paint and spraying it. We will most likely hire that out. Paint or gel coat, they’re both a lot of work and expense. Looking back, some consideration should have been given to environment and the things that can go wrong.

[@geniksonthego8963]

Thanks for watching! Stay tuned for the next video, as the primer has arrived and we are excited to get it on.

[@JoeLoew]

FYI, you can roll on gel coat, just like paint. Not sure who told you it had to be sprayed...

[@geniksonthego8963]

@@JoeLoew we had read you had to spray gel coat, but then I saw all sorts of people rolling it too.

[@goatman3828]

Are you talking about 1 part or 2 part paints? They are vastly different products.

[@geniksonthego8963]

This is a 2 part paint.

[@goatman3828]

@@geniksonthego8963 K. Thanks!