WTF with the gelcoat on older sunseekers!?!?

Sunseeker's gelcoat sprayers seem to have been trained at the local Nailbar and the gelcoat lasts about as long as nail varnish. The blues and reds go to a powdery bloom. Small scratches stand out like a babboon's bum.

As the gelcoat ages it is almost impossible to colourmatch a repair. The stupid sticker tape they put down the waterlines of older boats are better off being removed and painted on properly.

I have never been very impressed by their quality but they do go well.

@ Shazam: Just a tip... if this bores you so much as well it would disturbs me a lot, just sell the thing and buy something more interesting from other company. When i don't like something i just go buy from another Trade Mark or shop. Then maybe your are more happy with another product. Your full satisfaction is your first priority and what really matters and most important. Quality of all worldwide products today are everytime a pity, does not matter from what branch. Unfortunatly how the world is nowadays.

MKM, if you would like to replace a 63 Predator, can you suggest a few better alternatives?

As you saw, i wrote to the initiator the thread. Owner decision only.

I'm no gelcoat specialist but over the years I've noticed a few things. Mainly that colors readily show sins that white hides, and colors on boats fade and breakdown. Red seems to be the worst, but blue and black show everything as if magnified. For the life of me I don't know why anybody would want a colored hull except that it looks so pretty when new. Light tan seems to hold up the best, but isn't very fashionable. The gelcoat itself also seems to breakdown which is what I think you're mostly referring to as brush or roller marks. I don't think this is so much a Sunseeker phenomenon. They just have more colored hulls out there. Good luck matching any color that's been sitting in the Florida sun for 5 or more years. There are a lot of fiberglass guys out there, but few are artists. Sounds like it's time for awlgrip.

Hi,

To digress a bit from the threads origins.

Has anyone had any recent re sprays with Awl Grip?

I am seeing and hearing of a lot of problems with the top coats and wondered what the forum members experiences were.

I was recently involved with a transaction on a 2006 Chris Craft 43 Roamer Express with the navy blue hull. She had already been repainted a few years ago with Awlgrip as the original Chris Craft gelcoat had degraded. Dark hulls seem to be problematic.

What kind of problems are you seeing (adhesion, finish)?

Last year we had a duff batch of International Perfection White 001.

Next to Awlgrip, which is bloody expensive, the next best I've used is Perfection. Beautiful deep shine with lots of solids and nice flow characteristics. Good stuff.

One boat last year had 3 coats and all of them went dull the next day, couldn't figure out why. This winter we gave it a quick coat and it came out errr...Perfect!

My mate Pete has a bit of a sprayshop in Barcelona, he still swears by Awlgrip.

http://www.pinmar.com/en/pages/recources_barcelona.php

Hi,

And so does his sidekick Rene but it doesn't change the poor results they are achieving.

There seems to be a lot of problems with un evenness in the coating film and a breakdown in the DOI- Distinction of Image that starts to manifest itself after 2 weeks or so from time of top coating.

BTW FISH: PA doesn't seem to have much involvement in the day to day ops these days.

They boast a "412 square foot paint shed" according to the site. I do hope that's a conversion or translation error.

Probably similar to some of the quotes he's given us over the years.

Yes, I had a 2003 42' Regal with the same chaulky powder blue hull problem painted in 2006 with Awlgrip in the factory navy blue. We've only washed it with Awlwash without doing anything else to the finish and it still looks perfect

It's all in how it's washed. I have seen several yachts washed with an Ammonia based boat soap like Orpine and they lose their luster after a few years and look horrible. The Ammonia based soap really kills Awlgrip. I also run a Hatteras with a 12 year old paint job that looks perfect because it's washed with the right soap.

I bought 5 galls in 2000 and still have 2 left, the new stuff has been modified to suit epa regs etc and lots of sparayers are having issues with flow out, runs and color match, lots of guys up here are using a product called "Endura", is easier to apply and blend is harder than perfection and less $$$. They also have a full line of color match and epoxies etc.

Hi,

Thanks for the post.

The particular problems I am writing about appear before the boats first wash and on test pieces kept in optimum conditions.

I understand that the mixture has changed in Europe like elsewhere to meet the Environmental Regs, this seems to be where the problems originate.

Endura looks good on the net but it is proving to be an uphill battle to try and get a shipyard to paint a new Mega Yacht with Automotive Paint.

You should be able to get 10+ years on an Awlgrip job. Awlcare is nice but regular dishwashing soap works just as well. Use lots of water during the rinse. Back to the gelocat problem, many manufacturers are now painting the factory gelcoat as there have been so many problems in recent years. If have been involved with several paint jobs on boats straight from the factory.

Are they having issues with the standard Awlgrip, or the awlcraft 2000?

They've been using Imron on yachts for many years and it started out as an automotive paint.

What about Alexseal? I know a few custom sportfish builders have used it, but haven't heard of the results or how well it holds up.