Someone had asked me to detail my gelcoat process till now so here it is. This is my first time attempting a product like this so please correct me if I am wrong with any steps I detailed.
- Acetone wipe. From what I have read the best proceed is to use two paper towels. One to apply to solvent and the other two wipe away the contaminates before the solvent dries.
- Sand entire hull down to reveal cracks, previous repairs, damage, removed old gelcoating, etc. For this we used two random orbital sanders with 80 grit sandpaper. Two of those cheap bucket wet/dry vacs were used to keep the dust down and worked great.
- Acetone wipe.
- 3 coats gel coat sprayed with Earlux 5000 HVLP system. A final additional coat is applied with styrene wax added to help the drying process.
- Scotch brite wipe to remove wax from previous application
- Drying sand to remove orange peel and wet sand with 320 to smooth slightly.
Graphic Addition
- Template created with newsprint and design created by my talented little sister.
- Get a roll of 20'x25" 5 mil acetate film and trace design to acetate film.
- Apply re-positionable spray adhesive, wait 1 minute, apply entire acetate film to hull.
- Cut out stencil with a razor blade.
- Tape of rest of hull and spray.
Final clear coat (not yet completed, just a plan)
- Scotch brite wipe to remove wax from previous application
- Acetone wipe.
- Wet sand 320 grit to rough up the surface just a bit.
- Acetone wipe.
- Use clear coat gelcoat to spray 5 coats
- Coats 6 and 7 will have a duratec clear hi gloss additive added to aid in the final finishing.
- And final wet sanding at 400 and final polishing.
And some update pictures of the stencil application
