Gel coat question

[CHANCE1234]

I am almost at the finishing stages of my console. I have modified it using plywood and cut 6 inches out of the middle. Will new gel coat adhere well to old gel coat. Rebuild was done using poly resin. I have some ares that were bare glass, others where glass over wood and other areas original glass with original gel coat. Everything was faired with poly fair.

[CHANCE1234]

Also, I don't need to prime before gel coat right???

[PharmD2B31]

Why not just paint it with like some Awlgrip or equivalent??

[CHANCE1234]

I'm undecided which is kinda why I'm looking for some advice. I'd like to keep it kinda cheap too. I don't mind redoing some work every few years as the boat and trailer fit in my garage for some good winter work. So maybe regular marine topside paint would work too. Biggest bang for the buck kinda deal.

[erebus]

Are you brushing or spraying?

I'm brushing (signature) on the coamings, gunnels, console and cap on my 18SF that I'm rehabbing over here in Harwichport.
But I did put a coat of gelcoat on the new cover I made that fits over my new fuel tank. Its coosa/penske with a lot of layers of glass on it.
I will then brush signature and non-skid (kiwigrip) over the gelcoat (once I get the wax off and sand it out).

I used the gelcoat primarily as a sealer coat over the polyfair which is very porous. Its good to seal it up and give it a little bit of a protective shell before top coating.

If you're spraying you can get good looking coverage with gelcoat but its a little tricky to brush on and get a nice finish.

With top-coat paint you can pretty much go either way. Spraying or brushing, you'll get a pretty good result.
Signature is a two part polyurethane kinda like interlux perfection.
You could also just roll and tip on a nice coat of one part interlux brightsides. That would be cheap and easy albeit not quite as durable as the two-part, which is not quite as durable as gelcoat.
But of course as always, your mileage may vary.

[CHANCE1234]

Thanks Zack, I may just go with top side paint on everything. I will have spent enough anyway. I got a qt of Petit primer from WM, so I guess I'll try that on the console and than paint. Thanks for the input.

[nitz]

Go to your local auto body supply and get a decent two part paint. I used Nason Ful-thane by Dupont on my Whaler. It worked great and was way cheaper than "boat" paint (awlgrip,etc...). It even seemed to last longer.