Michel,

Glad to have you aboard.

There have been several posts here on our forum asking for the code for to match the gelcoat on our boats. Your boat like mine is nearly twenty five years old. If you could obtain the exact gelcoat mix that was used when the boat was manufactured it would not match your boat today. Just like us our skin looks much different now than whe we were produced. Over the years the gelcoat gets oxidized, it yellows from dirt and contaminents.

Like painting cars after they are damaged you can almost never get a perfect match without some custom blending to accomodate for what nature has done to the paint. Current paint technology uses a two stage paint for auto repairs, they first put a base coat of custom blended paint on the repair, it goes on flat with no shine to it. Then a clear coat is applied that gives it the gloss and is blended in to the surrounding area so your eye can not easily detect the area painted. I know of no such technique for gelcoat.

West Marine here in the U.S. sells a gelcoat repair kit that contains several tints, with practice and trial and error you can mix a near perfect match in tint by adding primary colors to the white base. It will change slighly as it cures so trial and error are needed. Even when you find the near perfect tint match it still may stand out as the gloss and surface porosity will be slightly different than the surrounding surface. It takes a very experienced individual to get a good match.

Often if the boat is damaged in a colision and the area is fairly large it is not uncommon for the insurance company to pay for a complete linear polyurathane paint job as matching aged gelcoat successfully is very very difficult.

Bonjour Michel!

I am going to take a wild guess that you are located in Quebec. If that is the case, have a look at this web site for Boulet Lemelin in Quebec City. This link is for a gelcoat repair kit: [url]http://www.blyacht.com/entretien/restoration-de-gelcoat/restoration-de-g...

Take a bit of the white gelcoat and put it in a paper cup - [B]DO NOT [/B]add catalyst at this time!!!. Empty coffee cups work well for this once cleaned out and dry. Mix very small amounts of coloring and when you think you are close to the hull color, put a little bit on your finger and smear a sample on the hull close to where you want to repair. Allow it to dry a bit and see if the color matches. You can wipe the sample off the hull with Acetone. Add additional color or more white gelcoat to the cup until you get a match. Then add the catalyst and apply the gelcoat.

There are some very good videos and info on the internet to help you learn how to do this. Good Luck.