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View Full Version : Options on restoring gelcoat you can feel metal flake through



Matt
06-17-2004, 04:19 PM
My boat's gel coat is faded to the point I can feel metal flake in places. What are my options? I'm pretty sure wet sanding is out as it would turn the metal flake silver. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Matt

SKATER241
06-18-2004, 11:54 AM
MOST FLAKE BOATS WILL FEEL A LITTLE ROUGH.IF IN DOUBT PICK A SPOT OUT OF THE WAY AND TRY BUFFING IT FIRST.USE A HEAVY CUT COMPOUND AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS.UNLESS SOMEONE HAS WET SANDED YOUR BOAT HEAVILY IN THE PAST I DOUBT YOU ARE FEELING THE FLAKE ITSELF.IF THE BUFFING DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE DESIRED RESULT THEN TRY WET SANDING THAT SAME SPOT AND AGAIN SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

Matt
06-18-2004, 12:46 PM
I've done a little compounding on it and I'm pretty sure I'm hitting some flake as I've turned some of it from burgundy to silver. It's never been wet sanded, but this is a Bullet bass boat that has spent a ton of time out on the water down here in severe Texas heat. It's only on the cap, the sides will compound out fine.

Matt

Hydrasports205
06-01-2005, 08:11 AM
not much you can do with it once the flake is bleached silver

You probably can actually feel the flake...I've been around a couple of old rangers like that. There isn't much you can do once it gets to that point. Putting a new coat of clear on a flake boat will only make it look 10x worse than it does right now in about 6 months. The best thing to do would be to keep it covered/polished or get it painted. There's an old guy over here that did a custom job for me one of those old rangers. He ordered the ranger polyflake that matched the original color of the boat and layed down the flake mixed with a clear...guess there was a little more to it than that, but it came out great. He did it just on the cap where the flake was bleached and rough....