I don't know how you guys with colored hulls do it

Ididntdoit

Ididntdoit

Well-Known Member
Dec 5, 2007
2,777
South Florida
Boat Info
Dusky 217
Engines
Suzuki
So the project boat i bought ('06 250AJ) has a neglected black gelcoat hull - the biggest problem is "burned in" hard water spots all over the hull. meguires 49 smooths the hull (wool pad on a rotary), but a slight ghosting of the spots is still there - tried some meguires hard water spot remover i had, but not much better. Do I try a more aggressive compound? Just live with it? Really not trying for 100% here, but would like to get it as good as i can for the effort....
 
Dark colored hulls are very difficult to maintain and very hard to bring back. I had a blue hull on my 280DA. A couple of years after I bought it a large gel coat repair started to fade differently from the rest of the hull. The side of the boat that caught the sun most of the day looked like crap despite regular waxing. I was very close to painting it with Awlgrip but instead traded it for the 330DA with a pewter hull. I have been a fanatic about waxing four times a year. After ten years the pewter looks like new. Depending on the thickness of the gel coat you may want to try wet sanding.
 
Mike, back in the fall I posted about a similar thing with the areas above my air conditioning discharge ports. Many here thought that an acid would take care of it but the acid I tried did not and I ended up compounding it out. I don't want to do that very often so let me know what you figure out. Do not confuse my issue with the drip line that runs down the side of the boat from the thru hull. The drip line is not the problem. As a matter of fact, the drip line from the shower sump discharge above it is the only place where there is no problem. I do not get the dirty rusty water drip lines that I see on some boats. My problem is some kind of water staining or fogging of a large (2' diameter) area above the A/C discharge thru hulls. The forward A/C discharge has the same foggy area above it.
I have not tried vinegar. Some here think it might work. Good luck.
index.php
 
Last edited:
Color retention in gelcoat was a fundamental flaw in some of the early colored dark gelcoats. Our boat was actually Awlgripped by Sabre as a warranty claim because of color fade. So other than painting there isn’t much that can be done in some cases.
 
Awlgrip is the way to go. Keep the salt rinsed off and have someone that knows how to (gently) wax it once a year and it looks great for years.
 
You have to go with an aggressive compound... I trust 3M for that extreme... and you have to use a good quality wool pad designed for compound ...again 3M... once you get it looking good ...it is easy to maintain
....last last resort is wet sanding....don’t go there unless everything else fails
A22F0015-064D-4F7F-974C-B331FD88CE4A.jpeg
 
Just be aware....When you are polishing and using compound you are cutting into all the area and not just the spotting part. So less is better and if you get it close, you might want to say it's good nuff!
 
A light wetsand will save you hours. 1200, 1500, then compound. I like buff magic compound or 3m extreme if you decide to go the polisher route. With the colored hull you’ll likely have to polish after you compound as well if you want the best shine possible. Labor of love but worth it
 
Henry Boyd said:
Color retention in gelcoat was a fundamental flaw in some of the early colored dark gelcoats. Our boat was actually Awlgripped by Sabre as a warranty claim because of color fade. So other than painting there isn’t much that can be done in some cases.
Click to expand...

Henry - couple questions for you, if you don’t mind? I assume Sabre painted your boat with Awlcraft? Do you know the color they used?

I bought a small center console that has navy hull. I’m not 100% happy with the way it polished out, so I’m having it painted. The Awlcraft “flag blue” looks to have a slight purple or red tint in it compared to the current gel coat color.

Thoughts or advice?

Thanks!
 
I have a buddy with a Cigarette that is painted blue.... he hates it for the scratches and touching it up just doesn't work.... I would try hard to do what you can with your gel coat to make it acceptable
 
I’m not sure what your buddy painted his Cigarette with, but paint choice makes all the difference. Awlcraft is generally the favorite because it is as easy, or easier to touch up than gel coat. My guess is your buddy probably had someone paint it with automotive paint, which is not uncommon with the go-fast crowd.

My 2005 55/58DB has a navy hull and it is in mirror condition. I know the limits of what can be done to this center console and the factory gel color is pretty thin and starting to show faint signs of bleed through.

Thank you for your input, but my original question remains to Henry about his experience and color match with paint.
 
tc410 said:
Henry - couple questions for you, if you don’t mind? I assume Sabre painted your boat with Awlcraft? Do you know the color they used?

I bought a small center console that has navy hull. I’m not 100% happy with the way it polished out, so I’m having it painted. The Awlcraft “flag blue” looks to have a slight purple or red tint in it compared to the current gel coat color.

Thoughts or advice?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Jeff,

The boat was painted in 2013 by Sabre for the previous owner under warranty. I asked them if it had been Awlgrip, or Awlcraft and they could not tell from their records which are not digitized, but their feeling from the production people was it is Awlgrip.

Blueone makes a good point, Awlgrip and Awlcraft both require special attention. It is easily damaged from scuffing from fenders, but no worse than gelcoat. It also can be damaged by harsh cleaners, not only used on the hull, but also stuff that washes down from the topsides. That said, the seven year old paint job on our boat looked as good as any of the buff and wax jobs on gelcoat because it was regularly resealed with AwlCare, the functional equivalent of “wax”. Resealing it is on the agenda for this spring’s commissioning.

In general, if you dock your boat by Braille, an Awlgrip hull probably isn’t for you.
 
Henry Boyd said:
Jeff,

The boat was painted in 2013 by Sabre for the previous owner under warranty. I asked them if it had been Awlgrip, or Awlcraft and they could not tell from their records which are not digitized, but their feeling from the production people was it is Awlgrip.

Blueone makes a good point, Awlgrip and Awlcraft both require special attention. It is easily damaged from scuffing from fenders, but no worse than gelcoat. It also can be damaged by harsh cleaners, not only used on the hull, but also stuff that washes down from the topsides. That said, the seven year old paint job on our boat looked as good as any of the buff and wax jobs on gelcoat because it was regularly resealed with AwlCare, the functional equivalent of “wax”. Resealing it is on the agenda for this spring’s commissioning.

In general, if you dock your boat by Braille, an Awlgrip hull probably isn’t for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Henry! I’m aware that Awlgrip is a harder finish than Awlcraft, and while harder to scratch, it is difficult or impossible to blend a repair without repainting the entire side or area. Awlcraft being softer makes it a little easier to scratch or blemish, but easily repair only affected areas.

I graduated from docking school about 35 years ago, so rashing it up isn’t a concern for me. I also have fleece covers on all my fenders and they are washed regularly. Having two navy hulls over the last 7 years has taught me a bit about the sensitivity of the color.

The finest yachts in the world from Hinkleys to Sabres to 300’ Feadships are painted. I’m sure I can manage it on a 23’ tender!!! I wouldn’t think twice about painting my Sea Ray if I could find a cost effective (and talented enough) yard in Northern Michigan. Just don’t have the options in MI that I have in Florida where the 23 is being updated.
 
tc410 said:
I graduated from docking school about 35 years ago, so rashing it up isn’t a concern for me.
Click to expand...
Me too... than the marina put a raccoon trap next to my boat.... raccoon moved it and it scratched up the side....pretty bad... fortunately I could compound out the side... you just never know

9F064E14-84D9-4D6D-A166-C9540CF815BC.jpeg
 
Jeff,

We also have the fleece fender covers. The harbor we’re on is the mouth of a river, so between the tides and current is pretty active. So we all try to tie up so the boats are off the fenders by using extra lines on the off side to hold the boat off the fenders and dock. The boat rides a lot smoother and the hidden benefit is limited dock rash.
 
I love my blue hull when its freshly polished which happens twice a year. This will be my last colored hull though, that is unless I find the fountain of youth!
 
Blueone said:
Me too... than the marina put a raccoon trap next to my boat.... raccoon moved it and it scratched up the side....pretty bad... fortunately I could compound out the side... you just never know

View attachment 81092
Click to expand...

I thought ducks and seagulls were difficult, but raccoons are tricky little bastids. Raccoons were the bane of my dad’ summer constantly knocking over trash cans at our camp in Maine. I also note the trap is empty, typical. You must have a family of wandering Mainers on your dock
 
Mike, our boat was originally pewter gelcoat which was wet sanded,compounded,polished etc and it never came back
So we painted it with Alexseal I was offered to paint it with any brand I wanted but the yard does 100’ers all with Alexseal as it’s the easiest to repair (as per the painter)
Another option I’ve seen was a 320 Da if I remember that was wrapped in blue and it looked like it was painted and was a fraction of the cost.
If I where keeping the boat I’d wrap it plus you could change the color whenever you wanted.
 
Havana Shamrock said:
Mike, our boat was originally pewter gelcoat which was wet sanded,compounded,polished etc and it never came back
So we painted it with Alexseal I was offered to paint it with any brand I wanted but the yard does 100’ers all with Alexseal as it’s the easiest to repair (as per the painter)
Another option I’ve seen was a 320 Da if I remember that was wrapped in blue and it looked like it was painted and was a fraction of the cost.
If I where keeping the boat I’d wrap it plus you could change the color whenever you wanted.
Click to expand...

If I end up keeping it, I will likely have it wrapped as it will be in a dry stack in fla - may even wrap the topside - be nice to not have to worry about buffing/waxing
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,144
Messages
1,427,235
Members
61,057
Latest member
DrBones!
Back
Top