Team Seacats

If you ain’t got that cling….Sorry – for some reason I made the association between gel coat, jello, and that old cling wrap commercial. I got the gel coat sprayed on the repair but it didn’t quite qualify for the level of “schmoof”. During the last gel coat project, I received some advice from David Lennard (that I didn’t follow at the time) to brush on a thin coat of gel coat before spraying subsequent layers with the hope that it would prevent pin holes. I did it this time and it worked marvelously! However, when I started spraying the first coat of gel coat, I forgot to tune the flow rate on the paint gun and the first pull of the trigger unleashed a fire hose like amount of gel. Instead of doing the right thing and wiping it off, I continued to spray. The intial large volume left the coat a little lumpy – it ~almost~ wanted to drip. Subsequent coats made it better but it will still require just a little extra wet sanding to get it right. That aside, the finish on the fresh gel coat is a lot better than what we achieved before because I really started spraying each coat on pretty darn thick. I thinned the gel coat with an equal part of styrene and added about 1.5% hardener. For the last couple of coats, I added about 2% of surfacing agent (parafin wax disolved in styrene). The surfacing agent floats to the surface of the gel coat and seals it from the air. This is important because the outer layer of gelcoat won’t cure if it is contact with air. All in all, I think I applied 12 coats because I knew I was going to have to sand a bit. Anyway…I don’t think I’ll have the chance to sand it tomorrow since I need to get everything packed up and spend some quality time with Bonnie. It will have to wait until after the regatta. Just in case we have no wind, I might take some sandpaper with me this weekend.

EDIT: I later determined that the surfacing agent for gel coat is just too finicky to work with. Different temperatures and humidities require different percentages. I now spray a thin layer of PVA (Poly Vinyl Alcohol) on top of the fresh gel coat to seal it from the air and get a good cure…the PVA method is simple and bulletproof and just rinses away with water.

Originally uploaded by Team Seacats.