Gel Coat Tinting

[Nauticatarcher]

I am looking at doing some gelcoat repair on our Nauticat 44, gelcoat is creamy tan colour and i wonder what colours tints i should use to tint white gelcoat, i was thinking of playing with yellow and brown to startb with, any advice on gelcoat tinting would be helpful

[CSY Man]

These days ya can take a chip, or a sample of the old gelcoat to your paintshop and have them match it 100% with some magic in a spectro-photogizzmomachine or some such thing.

Dealing with it right now as my boat is getting a coat of fresh gelcoat over the house and cockpit, including hatches, etc.
Amazing how close they can match the color.

[Pura Vida]

CSY,
It will be interested to hear how the color ages in relation to the original gel around it. I am to the point of cosmetics in the reuild of the C&C and after 30 years of banging the dock in tropical storms, a few years in charter and no telling what happened when she was being raced, the old girl has a lot of scratches above the waterline. To this point I have considered simply fairing the boat and repainting her the same color as the gel just because of the aging issue.

[schoonerdog]

consider a company like minicraft in Florida for doing professional gelcoat matching. Send them a plug or something small that has a sample of the gelcoat on it and they will color match it and send you back an exact match. Had them provide the gelcoat for a nasty ding on my starboard side and three years later it's still invisible.

[Alan Wheeler]

I am pretty sure that the colour is a standard colour. Of course "who's" standard colour is the question. But go see some of the local boat paint guy's in Nelson and see if they can help with a colour match. Norski over here in Blenheim also make the stuff and maybe able to help.
If you mix a tint into the gelcoat base yourself, the important rule is, a little goes a long way. Just use a drop at a time. It is also a little unlike paint. When paint dries, the colour changes slightly, often getting just a touch darker. That's the solvent evaporating out. Gelcoat does not have a solvent that evaporates, so the colour is pretty much the same wet and dry.

[Tropic Cat]

I haven't had much success in color matching. Like Nauticatarcher my gelcoat is creamy tan colour. I used white yellow and brown to match it absolutely exactly. I was so proud...... One year later the new patch has darkened considerably. No where even close to what I had mixed.

I gave up