aquaforce

Well I searched here but could not find this question covered so I am asking. There are epoxy based gelcoats and polyester based gelcoats and I need to know which one Formula used in the late 90's or specifically 97. From what I read the bases have different hardener ingredients such as the peroxides used in the MEKP and adhesion properties differ in the bases so I want to get the right stuff for my boat.
What can you tell me on this and where to get good materials to work with.
TIA

JRider

iTrader: (1)

A Formula would not be epoxy at that age...actually never heard of one being epoxy anyway. If you are looking to do a repair, the base color should be poly gel and the graphics are most likely imron.

aquaforce

I got the Gel from Formula and had to find a reference online to determine the right hardener. Some are butyl peroxide and some are hydrogen peroxide and what I had was the hydrogen version. Turns out that is the one. Got my repair done for the weekend and all worked out.

I really thought some persons I asked would know the tech data on this stuff but all I got from people were document numbers to look up, wow. But hey, I can read, so can they, and the document answered exactly what I needed.

So yea Formula uses a poly ester base gel with the Hydrogen peroxide version of the MEKP.

Eliminatorshane

iTrader: (1)

Never seen a epoxy formula...

Eliminatorshane

iTrader: (1)

If a boat is epoxy layup it still will have gel on outside usually. The issue is repairing a epoxy layup boat with gel after the fact.

aquaforce

I didn't really know what that even meant "epoxy gel" but that was a question I ran into trying to find a gel coat to fix my boat with. Then I did some reading and learned more about an epoxy layup and knew my Formula was not epoxy but there were different bases still in gel. Getting it from Formula was easier than I thought but that was the best thing because there are so many variants and bases of this stuff. I am not a paint and fiberglass guy so when I get into this kind of stuff I have a lot of questions trying to get all the technical details but I find a lot more people that don't even know what I do and they are trying to advise me????? Drives me nuts.

tommymonza

i will tell you one thing when doing Gelcoat repairs especially lights colors and whites.

Do not use a gelcoat with a wax additive which is needed for the gelcoat to fully cure.


Get a gelcoat without a wax additive and apply that and than cover the gelcoat with a coat of PVA seal so that the Gelcoat fully cures without the need of a wax



The wax additive if used will migrate to the surface over time and create yellowness on a white gelcoat or a haze around darks from my experience.

hoff

what is PVA seal? plan on doing some touch up

Eliminatorshane

iTrader: (1)

Poly coating too seal out air for drying, depending on patch size you can patch it and cover patch with mylar.

aquaforce

The mix that Formula specs for their product includes the wax. My older, 87 Formula seems to show some of the yellowing you speak of but none of the other three Formula's i've had from 89 up show that. I got the mix from the factory since they could get it to me the same week and I did the patch work using the original stuff. So far so good. I like how it blends so well it is impossible to tell where the work as done.