Gel Coat or Painted hull?

brewster16

brewster16

Well-Known Member
Aug 9, 2009
1,452
Long Beach Island, N.J.
Boat Info
'07 44 Sundancer
Engines
Twin Cummins QSC 8.3
This past weekend my '07 44 DA was hauled and blocked for winter storage. The hull is blue and for the most part flawless and recently waxed. He commented to me that the reason it looks so good and not faded after 7 years is that Searay paints the blue hulls as opposed to gelcoat like they do on lighter colored hulls. I really wasn't sure about that though. Does anyone know that the blue hulled boats are painted by the factory?
 
I never heard of that. My 2005 blue hull was absolutely all gelcoat originally and in 2013, I redid the entire hull with Awlgrip paint for a pretty penny.


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I've always thought Sea Ray used gel coat. My Formula had a blue Imron Painted hull, looked great but a real pain to get color matched for a touch up...
 
Tman said:
I never heard of that. My 2005 blue hull was absolutely all gelcoat originally and in 2013, I redid the entire hull with Awlgrip paint for a pretty penny.


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Click to expand...
Curious to hear more details. What made you decide to paint it? How does the hull look now? Is the maintenance the same as when it had gelcoat?
 
Usually a good application of Awlgrip or Imron is lower maintenance than gel coat. My Formula never oxidized and just needed a light polish and wax to have great depth.

Gel coat needs a solid coat of wax or it'll need a TON of work to bring it up. That said it seems to be more forgiving overall.
 
But, there is the cost of a re-paint in 10-12 years to consider.

Awlgrip cannot be repaired as easily as gelcoat, but the gloss retention is superior.

Everything below the 650 Express and Fly are gelcoated.......haven't see the 580L boats yet, so I can't comment on t hem, except to say that sea Ray spends a fortune on the paint and remote finishing operations required since the factory has no painting facility. The boats are run to a paint shop on their own bottom, painted then taken to Sykes Creek where they have thru hulls drilled and fittings installed. My guess is they will try to keep costs down and gelcoat as many as possible instead of painting them.
 
CAMELLA said:
Curious to hear more details. What made you decide to paint it? How does the hull look now? Is the maintenance the same as when it had gelcoat?
Click to expand...

Two issues prompted my decision:

(1) oxidation and wear. The original blue gelcoat looked stunning after a fresh wax and buff. But it didn't hold. Shortly after...as in 30-45 days or so of each waxing, I noticed the same dulling effect and faded finish in certain 'higher sun' areas. Despite some acute professional care, it just wouldn't retain the high gloss finish I was seeking or expecting frankly.

(2) Abrasions. We had a finger dock separate from the main dock and put a decent surface abrasion right onto the blue port side hull. Back to the shop she went to repair and match the gelcoat but given the existing oxidation, it was just impossible to match to my liking or acceptance. That was when I decided to surface prep the entire blue hull and go with Awlgrip.

Since then, I'm extremely happy with Awlgrip. Maintenance is almost nothing except the normal washing. Visually, the boat looks 'factory new'. I'm about to seal her with a coat of Awlcare. To be fair, I need a couple more years to determine the true Awlgrip performance but if 12+ months of constant use is any indicator, I'm very pleased with Awlgrip performance, durability, and in terms of looks....it's just stunning. This 2005 looks brand new...literally. Sometimes just stand on the dock and stare at it.

Tom


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Happy to share. I paid $24k all-in for the complete paint job which included of course the surface prep of the original gelcoat....extensive sanding, removal of thru hull fittings, port windows, taping, etc... Multiple (4) coats of Awlgrip. The project was also undertaken in a humidity/temperature controlled environment at the marina yard whereby a separate warehouse bay was sealed off and local heaters utilized as required. This was November 2013 and in NY after all so the fall temps were certainly prevalent. Upon completion, we shrink wrapped the boat from the rub rail up and let the hull 'breathe' all winter long until she floated in April 2014...ultimately getting transported to Seattle in July.


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My boat (2008) was a Blue Gel Coat from the factory. Previous owner had it repained with AwlGrip - blue.

His comment was that the Gel Coat was oxidizing, before he went through a wet sand taking yet another layer of the gel coat off he decided to go the painted route.

Paint was done a year ago, have to say it looks outstanding at this stage. My previous boat was a black hull gel coat, so have been around the non-white hulls for a bit.

We have a quantity of touch up paint - so time will tell how hard it is to deal with those "uh-oh" moments. Right now, I like it.

Frank has a good point - there is a repaint out there - is it 10 or 15 years? But then, I doubt I own this boat in 10 years.
 
I can live with the prospect of re-paint in such a timeframe but very unlikely to be my issue or worry a decade from now. These assets called boats incur costs no matter what the configuration and the only ROI is intrinsic so run the boat, enjoy it, maintain it, and just swallow the truth that monetarily, it's going to cost a few bucks and generally quite a bit of it from initial capex, opex, and maintenance.


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Tom,
curious if you used Awlgrip on the boot stripes or went back with vinyl?

got any hull shots so we can all make googley eyes?

did you stay within the same color palette?

for those considering, Awlgrip is an awesome product especially for the darker colors... the finish has great luster and maintains that look for years, even when exposed to the harshest elements. The finish is also not near as pours as gelcoat, so waxing is much more effective and water staining is significantly reduced

scratches/repairs however look very obvious as the finish gets very hard/brittle.. also stress cracks are very hard to hide and will more than likely reappear
 
A scratch is bad. I got one moving the boat. Cost 240 to fix it. Hull is back to perfect. So far, I am liking this.

Reserve the right to change my mind after I get smarter about it.
 
perryk123 said:
Tom,
curious if you used Awlgrip on the boot stripes or went back with vinyl?

got any hull shots so we can all make googley eyes?

did you stay within the same color palette?

for those considering, Awlgrip is an awesome product especially for the darker colors... the finish has great luster and maintains that look for years, even when exposed to the harshest elements. The finish is also not near as pours as gelcoat, so waxing is much more effective and water staining is significantly reduced

scratches/repairs however look very obvious as the finish gets very hard/brittle.. also stress cracks are very hard to hide and will more than likely reappear
Click to expand...

I ended up ordering new vinyl boot stripes instead of painting them on. Seemed like the way to go at the time but frankly didn't put a lot of thought into it.

I do have some hull shots of the process and finished product and will post when back to a computer with the photos. As for the palette, I stayed with a deep blue...midnight blue color. The Awlgrip palette number and name is;

Code: H5342 F5359 N5105
Color: Carinthia Blue

I do have a couple hull shots on the iPad here. The first photo is the initial sanding of the original hull for the surface prep. The second photo is a finish shot...always hard to really get a sense from a picture but for those familiar with Awlgrip....the depth of gloss is pretty stunning. I remain reserved about long term durability but am optimistic thus far.

Tom



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