Matching interior gelcoat hue

[tribologist]

Been very irritated over the worm-eaten dashboard in Driftless. I done some gelcoat tinting in the past but never with such a undefined beige color. I bought ivory pigment to get close but i only had white base. Did nothing.. added gray brown and yellow. Turned out pretty good!

[Plum76]

I have similar repairs to make, nice to see some results to aim for. Gelcoat is new to me, so fair results are my expectation, if it's sealed up, that's the priority. Enough other aesthetic issues that perfect match is not essential in my case..

Jason

[ssrig]

That’s a pretty good match if the first picture you posted is after repair! Also the work on the holes is good, I can’t see where they were. What did you do?

[tribologist]

Thanks. I started with countersinking from the top. Then i took the 1-1-8 beltsander and took out about 2mm 3/32” around the hole from the bottom. I then covered each hole with two patches of tufted up biaxial 1708 (mat is a mess, 1708 wins most times). As soon as that set up i filled the holes from top with deck and hull putty (milled fibers and cabosil in polyester) I made sure that was about 0.020” -0.040” below the top. After that gelled, i brushed in gelcoat. ( That was stupid by the way.. I should have waited and sanded again before putting in gelcoat.). Now i have a thin halo of deck and hull around each repair but i was eager to try and it saved a day. The whole process took maybe 2 hrs. The images show the bottom before slobbering finish gelcoat over the patches to get it to cure. The other image is a neat trick. I cut pieces up of 1708 ahead of time with clean dry hands, I give them a little rub to “ diffuse” them . Then i pick a few at the time and stick them to the side of the cup using the brush. Then i can wet them in the cup and put them in place with the brush. No sticky glass furball fingers involved. I used the phone even.. thats my last patch on the side of the cup. I loaded 6-7 at the time. Now i need to sand the bottom and roll paint over it.