flipping the 1983 31ft Scarab II over to sand and patch the entire bottom. Should gel coat, paint, or awlgrip??

Are you planning on leaving the boat in the water for any extended period of time? If so then I would go Gel.

Jon

Audio brings up a good point, color and exposure to the sun is a big concern too if you are going with a dark color red,blue, or black and the boat sees alot of sun paint will be the way to go

I have seen awlgrip master craft 2000 on an all black cig it has been 3 years and as held up great the boat lives on a lift and in the sun most of the day, have seen a ppg concept boat all orange also not left in the water for more than 2-4 days at a time holding up great and a red imron boat that was left for months at a time ( mine) it has some small blisters so now i dump it and pull it out after each run

I am helping out on a restoration of a 68 donzi now that is all yellow gel we'll see how it holds up

i guess a good compromise would be gel below the water line and paint above it or if you are going all white go gel another thing to think about is repairs to dock rash scratches i am not sure which is easy to do

the Cigs leave the mold in all white gel and then get a paint job don't they ???? Donzi now paints their boats too

The norm is gel bottoms & then depending on preference paint sides and deck.. Donzi & Cig among others have been doing it for years.. Also when painting sides & decks, I recomend using Basf Diamont or PPG concept instead of awl grip or imron... I personally like how those 2 work in the marine applications & the end finish with them looks great and is more "repair" or maintianace friendly IMO... I know Donzi uses Diamont & If memory is correct Cig usually uses concept..

If you did paint the bottom, it should be gel or epoxy underneath anyway. Otherwise you could run into some grief.

Jamie

I purchased a boat that was awlgrip painted in 03. It was in the sun every day all day until I got it. It has a nice shine and has held up very well. It is the only experience I have with paint so I can't compare it to anything else. I am happy with it. .02

yes paint is easier to keep shiney

jet black awlgrip master craftt 2000

orange ppg

red imron

and this is not really fair the boat is still being worked on so it has not been detailed yet .

yellow gel

If you want to have sand on your flip flops and walk on the deck .use Awl Gripp.It is masterfully tough.It is the same stuff basicly that is used on 747's ( aluma Grip)..
It is real hard to use..
1 Dry popcorn fart light coat then One med to heavy coat. Heat the paint up w a hot plate and don't thin it..It will out survive anything..I know ..For sure.
Then Imron then delstar then deltron dcc. I know the durabilty goes in that order.

I have been painting since 81

Ditto on all'a dat But if you absolutly hafta paint use Awlgrip.

mcprodesign- Its been years since i used Awlgrip (late 80's) what does heating it do? will it still work if you dont or is that a technique to help it flow? does it actually say on the tech sheet "dry popcorn fart lite coat" . . . . . welcome to OSO by the way. I'm just glad somebodys here that has been painting longer than i have (87)


Gel on the bottom always. Donzi's in house graphics are second to none in quality, i havent used Diamont yet (i'm a PPG guy for the most part) Gonna hafta give it a try

What ever you put on top always lay down a .5mm coat of Duratec Vinylester Primer underneath. It will prevent osmosis.