1978 Viking rebuild

[LakeFever]

There should be specs on finish and base requirements available for the products your using to refinish the boat. I dont have any experience with gel but in the auto refinishing world theres a ton of different specs that are made for each specific paint and primer. You'll want the grits to be spot on and coverage depth to also meet needs. That said I had some work done on mine last year and using black gel no primer the refinisher was able to cover things very well using only gel. Learning a ton here, keep it up!

[XstreamVking]

I would hit it with enough gell to get a pre finish base surface. Then w/d sand with 320 grit leaving no break thru's. Then lay on the finish gell coat carefully, 3 good coats with wax in last coat. Guide coat and sand with 1000 then 1200 and buff.

[tnelsmn]

First of the gel coat went down.

This is my first time spraying gel so it took a while to get everything figured out. I figured out that I didn't have the pressure set nearly high enough on my cheap-o Amazon gun. Started at 12psi and figured out that 40psi worked much better. The first few pints were really slow going and didn't lay down very well. Those spots are going to take some extra sanding. But once I got the settings figured out it went well. Looking forward to doing the rest, can't wait to see the flake go down!

I started at the rear and worked my way forward as you can see by the results.

For reference I am using a $27 Amazon HVLP gun, 2.5 tip. Fluid setting wide open, fan pattern almost completely closed, 40psi, full thickness gel catalyzed at 2%.

[LakeFever]

Wow is that how gel is or is there ways to improve flow? My painters eye says too dry add more reducer and let flash between coats longer but I cant say if that applies to gel or not? Want to help and learn at the same time if possible

[tnelsmn]

I think this might just be how gel coat is. The guys at the supply house said it's going to be a lot of orange peel on the finished product. I think I got the flow figured out towards the bow, it was certainly coming out of the gun better and laying down better. They told me not to reduce it at all, to work about a 3x3 area and spray it until I reached 18-26 mils. I probably made 4-6 passes to reach that thickness. Then move onto the next area maintaining a wet edge.

The pad looks pretty bad, I tried to sand it out but ended up breaking through before I got it smooth. I'll respray that when I do the other side of the bottom.

[oldschoolltv]

I have used acetone or styrene to thin it and it will lay flat, but I am sure some of the people that do this for a living will chime in.

[tnelsmn]

All the gel coat is on the bottom! The white on the running surface was mixed with wax when it went down. I ran a hard tape line on all edges. Once it was cured I wet sanded the edges with 80 grit to feather the tape line down, then scrubbed the whole thing with a Scotch brite pad and hot soapy(Dawn) water to remove any wax. I ended up spraying the pad three different times after sanding it off trying to get it smooth. But I finally got it, third time is a charm. Glad I started learning on the bottom!

The running surface was taped off and covered with paper. I staggered three tape lines about 1/2" apart so the transition from flake to white wouldn't be such a large edge with three layers of gel. This way I could pull the first layer of tape after spraying the black, then pull the next layer after spraying the flake, and pull the final tape after the clear. This wasn't for looks, you'll never see it anyway.

All gel was sprayed full thickness and catalyzed at 2% I've got my technique down so that I can achieve a mill thickness of 18-26 with 3 wet passes, 50% overlap, holding the gun about 18" from the surface. I then fan out the pattern and hold the gun about 24" back and do a quick fog pass. Picked this trick up from an automotive painter and it seems to reduce the orange peel. We catalyzed one Quart of gel at a time, this would give two fills of the gun. The gun was cleaned with Acetone after each quart was sprayed.

Everything was sprayed with black as a base for the flake, not waxed. This was allowed to cure and cool down before the next step.

Next was the flake! It was mixed about 4oz by weight (which works out to about 1/3 Cup by volume) to one Quart of clear gel, not waxed. This was sprayed using the same procedure as the rest. The blue fade was sprayed once the silver went down, I tried to stop the silver a bit short of the edge and let the blue fill in to avoid doubling the amount of gel. The blue was sprayed on the silver before it cured so the fade would cure properly. This had to be done in sections.

After the flake layer cured and cooled down straight clear was sprayed, this was waxed. Sprayed the same as above except I did a second fog pass. I think it looks great over all and the orange peel isn't as bad as I was expecting. Worst case scenario once it is all wet sanded with 400 a second layer of clear may be added. But I don't think that will be necessary.

So there she is! What an incredible amount of work to reach this point. It was about a nine hour process for my brother and me to do just the spray work. He was doing all my mixing while I pulled and trigger and cleaned the gun.

Edit: 5 Quarts of black gel, 6 Quarts silver flake/gel, 3 Quarts of blue flake/gel, 6.5 Quarts of clear.

[mrichartz]

That's better than those tiny pics can't enlarge on Instagram w/o holding.. But both are good!
Looks really good!!!

[tnelsmn]

That's better than those tiny pics can't enlarge on Instagram w/o holding.. But both are good!
Looks really good!!!

For sure! It is quicker to get them on IG so they ended up there first. I knew I'd have some time into writing the whole post here. I did this while uploading all the videos taken during the process.

[mrichartz]

Yea it is a bit of a pain in the a to post pics on here..
And damn seems like Everytime I go to post pics it's a pita
And when I finally think i get them uploaded... I get logged out....

[LakeFever]

Looks amazing congrats! Why did you decide to keep the running surface white and not flake/clear the whole thing?

[tnelsmn]

Looks amazing congrats! Why did you decide to keep the running surface white and not flake/clear the whole thing?

Simply to save time and material, and you'll never see it. Thank you!

[JDChase]

Simply to save time and material, and you'll never see it. Thank you!

You did an amazing job! I have been spraying gel, urethane, lacquer and any other finish surface for 40 years and i could not have done it much better! You should be very proud of your work. If you want to make that last without fading you should spray 3 coats of high quality automotive clear on a sanded finish, this will make obtaining a super gloss way easier and give it some UV protection. Some of the nicest work I have ever seen has been done by amature's who's hearts were really in it like yours! congratulations! you are now about to become expert buffing and compounding guys too!

[LakeFever]

I asked because I thought you had some performance trick figured lol. Makes sense though you wont see it. It sure does look amazing this thread has been so much fun to follow

[mrichartz]

Because the white is faster... And it'll be so fast that it will wear off the flake and spark...? ...