http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/p-1292-white-polyester-gel-coat-inclusive-of-catalyst.aspx

that might help you.

 

im pretty sure that 300g of gel should cover an area of about 1 metre square which works out around 0.3mm thick which is about right. to be on the safe side id say 500g per square metre just to make sure you have enough

 

The trick with gel-coat (Flo-coat) is not to brush it out too thinly so reckon on 500g per meter. Put it on, brush it out and dont go back to it after the first few minutes or you will re-mix the MW wax that rises to the surface. this can leave a tacky patch.
Use absolutely the best brushes you can lay your hands on unless you want a finish like an elephants scrotum.
Plan your work one chine or one side at a time. Its hard work and you will have to work well and fast so plan the points where you can stop. wherever you stop will need to be rubbed down along the edge where it meets the next phase because the surface wax will prevent the overlap from bonding unless it is removed. These overlaps are hard to hide so plan them to occur on edges so they dont show.
If you put it on reasonably thickly you should be able to rub it down but beware, rubbing it down tends to lighten it so unless you are going to recoat you should be prepared to do the whole boat or not at all.
Larger brush ridges can be dragged off by using a stanley knife blade on edge - just blunt the corners first.
Choose a similar colour to original to reduce the risk of thin spots showing through.

 

20-25kg drum would do it and you get a better price in this volume mate. Any left is always a good thing. Rather that than have to use 2 different batches and get patches (speaking from experience)

Just dont **** it up like me :busted_co

 

20-25kg drum would do it and you get a better price in this volume mate. Any left is always a good thing. Rather that than have to use 2 different batches and get patches (speaking from experience)

Just dont **** it up like me :busted_co

If i can do it with that amount then i guess it wont cost that much more than using a decent paint, but with a much, much better quality finish, assuming i get it right first time of course! Got some flowcoat coming in the next few days for inside the boat so can have a bit of a practice with that. Is it similar in thickness to gelcoat? I'll put up some photos in the next few days, then maybe you could let me know what you think? Cheers, John.

 

flowcoats easier to use than normal gelcoat. it spreads much easier due to the wax making it slightly thinner.

gelling the boat may seem cheaper than painting but once you add up the cost of brushes, pots, sand paper, wet or dry, cutting compound it soon adds up and will take about 5 times as long as painting due to the amount of rubbing down and filling any low spots. if you took the boat to a yard to have the wor done youd be looking at 2-3 weeks work which is alot of weekends

 

Agree with the above, imagine trying to paint on peanut butter (smooth not crunchy) to a decent finish. Also agree with the amount of time it take to get it flat. The only advise I can give you is take your time! The problem with any super smooth finish is that it shows up every single blemish when polished up, but you won't notice them until your getting the compound and polisher out.
My first attempt looked like the back end of a fat bird when I polished it up so i had to go right back down to the 120 grit and work my way up again. That brought it's own set of problems aswell like the gelcoat thinnning through which mean't I had to re gel again and I was stuck in that vicious circle for ages.

It looks ok now, but there are areas where I have a slight differance in white colour, even though I used the same gel from the same tin. Wether or not it was because the first coat had dulled or that it was a slightly differant amount of MW solution or cat, i don't know.

On the plus, I put my boat on the trailer yesterday and brought it home. The trailer I bought had retractable light board brackets which I forgot to retract when loading it on. It put a 12" scratch along the bottom of the boat, the gelcoat was just discoloured and rubbed off, the epoxy paint on the underside came off right back to the gel. So it is a lot tougher than any paint you'll use.

 

flowcoats easier to use than normal gelcoat. it spreads much easier due to the wax making it slightly thinner.

gelling the boat may seem cheaper than painting but once you add up the cost of brushes, pots, sand paper, wet or dry, cutting compound it soon adds up and will take about 5 times as long as painting due to the amount of rubbing down and filling any low spots. if you took the boat to a yard to have the wor done youd be looking at 2-3 weeks work which is alot of weekends

Thanks Stewart, i am just going on what most people on here seem to prefer, and that seems to be gelcoat rather than paint. What i really want is a really nice looking boat at the end of it. I've not rubbed down the existing paintwork yet, who knows what could be under there? When theres a break in the rain up here and im actually able to get on with anything outside of the cabin, i might well discover a disaster that requires more work than i imagined. I guess its one big learning curve? Cheers, John.