Gel coat color?

[Hindsight]

Since I'm going to have to drill holes in the hood and trunk to add my balsa reinforcement pieces, I'm going to need to fill the holes in. To keep the body looking presentable for as long as possible before painting or wrapping it (which will likely come further down the road), I'd like to fill them with white gel coat.

I called FFR and they want $65 for an ounce of gel coat. Far too rich for my blood, considering you can buy quarts of the stuff for like $35 all day long. But, I want the color to match. Does anyone happen to know the brand or color or anything along those lines that would help me get a good color match to the FFR white gel coat?

Thanks in advance.

[matteo92065]

ditto.
I would like to get the correct white to fix the seams on the new nose.

[C.Plavan]

I'm curious why you need to drill holes for balsa reinforcement? You can just epoxy/or glass the Balsa in like the old Porsche's.

[Hindsight]

Chad, thats exactly how I am doing it. The issue is that the hood needs to be mounted on the body, and flexed/bowed in the desired places prior to attaching the balsa and you need something to keep the balsa in place until the glue dries. I can think of no way of achieving this with the hood off the car and upside down since the curvature would be wrong. I am very open to suggestions though!

[Jim Schenck]

Its $65 for the whole repair kit, 1 Oz. of hardener, 1 pint of gel-coat, and 1 pint of Gel-coat paste.

[C.Plavan]

Chad, thats exactly how I am doing it. The issue is that the hood needs to be mounted on the body, and flexed/bowed in the desired places prior to attaching the balsa and you need something to keep the balsa in place until the glue dries. I can think of no way of achieving this with the hood off the car and upside down since the curvature would be wrong. I am very open to suggestions though!

Ahh- Ok. I thought it was mounted already. The balsa will still flex, it will just be a little stiffer if things are not perfect. Are you using Mechies front hinge? That would be easy since you can raise and lower quickly during install.

You could use 3M VHB tape to start the mounting process- then glass over it once everything is perfect. That tape holds everything on, and you can get different thicknesses/widths. I'm a huge fan of it.

[Hindsight]

Its $65 for the whole repair kit, 1 Oz. of hardener, 1 pint of gel-coat, and 1 pint of Gel-coat paste.

Jim, thanks for chiming in. The person I was on the phone with said the kit "came with 1 ounce if gel coat" so I appreciate the clarification! I will probably just order it from you folks. The person on the phone said it comes with wax additive that you can mix in. I'm wondering how well you think the wax will work for a small screw hole, or if I should just skip the wax and cover it with mylar instead?

Ahh- Ok. I thought it was mounted already. The balsa will still flex, it will just be a little stiffer if things are not perfect. Are you using Mechies front hinge? That would be easy since you can raise and lower quickly during install.

You could use 3M VHB tape to start the mounting process- then glass over it once everything is perfect. That tape holds everything on, and you can get different thicknesses/widths. I'm a huge fan of it.

Hey Chad. Yes I am using Mechie's front hinge. I did consider taping the wood in place, but the issue there is that the wood gets its main bond to the hood via direct gluing the two together. The fiberglass you add over the wood doesn't help attach the wood as much as it provides resistance against expansion and contraction of the wood (like when you would try to further bow or flatten the hood). If I had a vac bagging system, I could probably get the glass on there so tight and thick that it would provide all the adhesion I need but I don't have that setup. I'm ok with some screw holes - especially if I can gel coat them closed and buff them out.

[mikeinatlanta]

FFR's price for the kit is about right for the small quantity and the trouble it saves color matching. For the wax, you should go ahead and add it. It will not hurt anything and will make the surface cure out much nicer. You can skip it and cover with mylar as you stated, but that doesn't really gain you anything. Either way, surface prep for paint is the same.

[Hindsight]

Thanks Mike! Having never used waxed gel coat before, I didn't know if there was a certain "blob" size required for it to actually work, and thought the screw holes might be too small if there was. I'll go ahead and use the wax.

I called FFR but unfortunately they are out of stock on the white gelcoat. I had already ordered some white stuff off Amazon so when that comes in, I will do a color match test and if it works, great, otherwise I will wait the two or so weeks until FFR's comes in I guess.

[mikeinatlanta]

The wax will work with any gelcoat quantity. It requires about 2oz per gallon of gelcoat. Most wax will be just paraffin suspended in styrene. You will want to shake it up well right before use. Better less than more if varying the amount. Unless using the gelcoat for making parts with a mold, I would go ahead and treat all of it with the wax rather than trying to meter out by the batch.

[Hindsight]

Oh cool, I did not know you could treat well ahead of actual usage. Makes sense though, since you can purchase gel coat from suppliers that come pre-mixed with wax. Thanks again!

[bbjones121]

Its $65 for the whole repair kit, 1 Oz. of hardener, 1 pint of gel-coat, and 1 pint of Gel-coat paste.

Hey Jim,

Any possibility you could help us with a matching color code?

Thanks,
Paul

[AZPete]

A color code for the white would be really useful. And, for red also, for those guys.

I've been learning by trail-and-error to use the FFR gel coat kit. I've been able to fill holes, seams and a few voids by mixing the gel-coat and the paste in small batches of about 2 tablespoons, then mixing in 2 drops of hardener. For a thin mixture I've used mostly gel-coat with very little paste, if any, and then for a thicker compound to fill holes I mixed mostly paste with less gel-coat. It all depends on how thick you want it. Too much hardener sets too quickly. Then, I've sanded to 2500 and polished to get a nice shine.
I'd like to know what color paint matches so I can touch-up a few spots. I'd also like to paint my outside mirrors and the spoiler white so a spray can color would be best. I'm going for a paintless finish.

[flynntuna]

Matching gel coat can be a pain, fortunately though there is a good you tube site that has good info on this subject.

http://boatworkstoday.com/archives/1508

This is one part of a 5 part series on fiberglass repair.