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Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:55 pm

After the MOTB I had a large re gel coating project that I had to do at my parents rental house. The pool had been there for 18 seasons and with all the sandy feet "sanding" the bottom of the pool the gel coat had worn off to the underlying fiberglass in places. The gel coat was also faded and "chalking" over all.

This is also what happens to a fiberglass body that has sat out in the sun for decades or been "worked" on by previous owners over the years.

I had originally thought I would spray the pool shell, but realized that it would be brutal trying to mask off the deck over 3 days. I decided to roll the gel coat on with a thin foam roller made for rolling gel coat/resin.

I figured that it could also work if someone wanted to re gel coat their buggy. If you spray or roll gel coat you will still have to sand and polish at the end. Since most buggy surfaces are basically flat it should be no problem rolling. You can get rollers in 3", 7", and 9" lengths so cutting in the edges should be fairly easy.

The process I used went like this:

-Sand the shell with 80 grit paper on a DA or 6" polisher/sander.
-Vacuum/sweep up dust.
-Wipe down area with styrene, let dry.
-Dilute gel coat by 10% (by volume) with styrene. This makes it flow better.
-Roll out first coat(unwaxed) (this first coat will act like a primer and will get sucked into the more porous areas) Let cure till tacky, not wet.
-Roll out second coat (unwaxed) Try to keep a wet edge as you go. Let cure till tacky.
-Roll out third coat(waxed diluted 5% styrene) Let this cure over night and it should be ready for sanding and polishing.

Here is what the pool looks like now after 7 gallons of gel coat, 100 rubber gloves, a gallon of styrene, 2 gallons of acetone, 25 paint tray liners and about 30 quart mixing cups.

Hopefully it will last another 18 seasons.

On the buggy body you could do more coats so you could sand it mirror smooth and polish it out to a better than new shine. (the good thing about the pool is that I will not have to sand or polish it at all) With my experience of spraying gel coat it may be easier to roll and it is definitely a cleaner process.

**Make sure you wear solvent resistant gloves when using styrene and acetone. ALWAYS wear a chemical rated respirator when using any of the materials I have mentioned here.

Vince

Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:08 pm

As always... beautiful work, Vince!

bryan

Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:28 pm

wow! What a result!

Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:08 pm

Another fine piece of work. Maybe I will send you another "project" to try rolling the gel coat one.

Fri Oct 26, 2012 1:00 am

And how did you manage doing all that while keeping the initial coats tacky? from the deck with a long handle?

Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:19 am

Roys_Big_Toys wrote: Another fine piece of work. Maybe I will send you another "project" to try rolling the gel coat one.

Dude... I'm in line next! :lol:

bryan

Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:35 am

*brain exploded into tiny bits*

Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:54 am

How much gelcoat would you expect to use to recoat a buggy?

Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:23 am

Vince thats exactly what the manx two needs done plus some small fiberglass work so il give you a call to talk about it and your time availability. How long did that job take you. Nice job!

Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:32 am

Vince thats exactly what the manx two needs done plus some small fiberglass work so il give you a call to talk about it and your time availability. How long did that job take you. Nice job!

Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:46 am

I can smell the resin all the way over here on the east coast,, nice job!

Did you actually walk or stand ont the tacky gel coat on the 2nd and 3rd layers, , or did you do it from the deck?

Fri Oct 26, 2012 11:07 am

[quote="bim55"]I can smell the resin all the way over here on the east coast,, nice job!

Last time I looked, North Carolina was on the east coast! LOL

Fri Oct 26, 2012 11:19 am

[quote="RickS"] bim55 wrote: I can smell the resin all the way over here on the east coast,, nice job!

Last time I looked, North Carolina was on the east coast! LOL

...the winds from the Frankenstorm may be blowing the fumes northward.

bryan

Fri Oct 26, 2012 12:59 pm

Bryan
Thanks for the kind words.

crack monkey
Thanks for the kinds words.

Roy
Thanks for the kind words, would that project be a Tow'd?

Rick
I let it cure out over night and it was barely tacky, so I was able to walk on it lightly as long as I kept moving. If I stood too long in one place my sandals would start to stick.

CodeMonkey83
Reference to respirator, without it my brain would have exploded.

CoryN
I would say 1 gallon and a quart of styrene. If you had pods I would go a gallon and a half.

Marc
Yours will be different since it is metal flake and clear gel coat which I would definitely spray. Unless you are talking about your Manx 1.

The job took a total of 3 weeks. One week to dry everything out. The next week for sanding and prep. The last week (3 days really) was for rolling the gel coat. (about 1 coat per day) The first coat took the longest since the weathered fiberglass sucked it in pretty well. It really needed 3 coats to give it full solid coverage. I would be tempted to do 4-5 coats on a buggy since you will sand at least one layer off to get rid of the "orange peel".

bim55
I can still smell it on me. Since it cured over night and was 75F during the day it was not too bad to stand on it lightly. Are you still making Deserter parts?

The steps and seat area were the biggest pain since they had 90 degree angles. But with a little time and practice they went better and faster by the third coat.

Vince

Fri Oct 26, 2012 5:10 pm

That looks amazing Vince =D>

Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:20 pm

I wonder if that pool is going to get filled back up in the next couple of days.

Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:28 pm

Yep, I am going to look at one tomorrow. I am trying to convince my wife that I "need" another buggy and a Tow'd would complete my collection. For some reason she don't think so. (Complete my collection) It would be an easy project. LOL

Sat Oct 27, 2012 7:59 pm

Funny to see this thread today as I just rolled on a gel coat on my buggy today. This will be a base coat for the carbon fiber I will be applying to the buggy.. (I do not want the giltter to be seen through any of the space in weave in the carbon fiber)
I used a 3" roller and this took only 20 minutes to do including mixing time.
I used a 3" low pile solvent resistant roller to apply the black pigmented gel coat.
This is two coats so far, I will wet sand with 220 or 400 before appling the next coat as I experinces some pin hole bubbles (very small bubbles) that gelled over. this will knock down the bubbles light oarnge peel and also even out any "stepping" from the roler.. howeve it did lay down pretty even.
I did use surface curing agent (wax) in each coat as I know I will be sanding before final coat.
I mixed the resin rather cool with 75% ultra clear surfboard resin and 25% UV cure resin, I added some catalyst to insure it will kick as the black pigment will hinder the UV resin from full cure.

I will go to my local fiberglass suplier and see if they have the foam roller, I am wondering if this will prevent the tiny bubles.. Or I wonder if thinning with styrene will do this??? or both..
I do professional surfboard repair and glassing.. I have never used a thinner in resin before.. I understand it works well as a tack coat for laminating around curves...

Great post surfnc!! I hope my chim-in will help someone who is thinking about gel coat rather than paint.. Even tho I am doing this as a base coat for carbon fiber, it looks pretty good so far.. a few more coats and some sanding/polishing I could call it done... but Im not stopping there, its gonna be 2x2 carbon (evil laugh)

Even with my fiberglass experience I feel the average joe can do this no problem.. besides fiberglass buggys have turned many with no fiberglass experience what-s0-ever into experts!! gotta love it.. :)

This is my buggy after two coats so far: a little over a half a pint of resin, under a teaspoon black pigment, a pinch of surface agent, two 3" rollers, 2 pairs of rubber gloves and the same mixing cup :)

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Sun Oct 28, 2012 9:38 am

Put some wheels and a motor on the pool and lets go!

Sun Oct 28, 2012 10:02 am

Vince:

On a buggy body, would you use a primer-sealer coat, then a primer-surfacer coat before top-coating? I know that you seem to like the Duratec primers - this info would be good to know for those doing major bodywork/repairs.

regards,

Bryan