The right color of Gelcoat??

[RilleImp]

Hi! I have a Sea Ray 268 Sundancer -86.

Has suffered an injury when cleat burst, and now I need to get hold of the right Gelcoat.​

Does anyone have any tips on how to get the right color? The boat is damaged in both the white and red, and have not managed to find any help here in Sweden. / Rickard​

 

[Henry Boyd]

Rickard,


Two possibilities:

Plan A - Best choice for a small DO-It-Yourself job

Contact Sea Ray and give them your HIN number. I know on newer boats (90s and 00s) they can give you their part number. This sounds silly, but there are about a dozen versions of Sea Ray 'Arctic White'.

Then you can contact Spectrum Color (spectrumcolor.com) and they can supply you with a match. I don't know if they can ship to Sweden, but it is a start.

Plan B - Best Choice for Serious structural repair (like a busted cleat mounting)

Given the age of your boat, the color has probably changed over the years. Best thing you can do is ask around the local boating community for a recommendation on a fiberglass repair guy. A good one can match the existing color so that you will never know it has been repaired. Besides if you pulled a cleat out there is more to repair than Gelcoat.

By the way, if you have found a fiberglass repair guy and he is telling you to find a color match on the gelcoat - Find Another Fast!

All things considered I would go with Plan B for a large repair.

Henry

 

[Tail Chaser 661]

I could be wrong. But....
I had read some post last year saying when boat yards do fibreglass/gelcoat repairing.

They match the original color with marine paint.
A good marine paint is more durable and has UV blockers that gelcoat does not have.


Just some info for you to look into.