Gelcoat shop recommendation

[brucem]

I’m restoring my 2005 SANTE, and I'm looking to re-gelcoat the boat. I’ve talked to a couple shops locally that do repairs and can wet sand, but haven’t found anyone who will do a complete re-gelcoat. Does anyone have a recommendation in the so-cal area (I’m located in San Diego)? Attached is a pic.

Thanks,

Bruce

[NautiqueJeff]

Why respray that? Wet sand and buff that and it'll come back great.

[SilentSeven]

^^^^ Jeff knows what he's talking about.

[brucem]

I'm completely restoring the boat (probably a fool's errand). With the gel coat being 17 years old I wanted to understand the cost delta between respray and wet sand. My thinking is if the delta isn't too great I'd prefer to have a new thick gel coat vs a thinned gel coat that might need to be addressed again in the next 10 years. Is this silly? And if anyone has recommendations on shops in the so-cal area for a complete gel coat I'd appreciate the suggestions.

[NautiqueJeff]

If you're not changing the color, I would not recommend it.

Nautique is known for using quite a thick layer of gelcoat. You'd easily be able to sand that back to new condition, and for a fraction of the price of a respray.

I think you'd be surprised at how thick the gelcoat is on these boats.

[vision]

Unless there is significant damage to the original gelcoat, wet sand it, keep it waxed, and keep it stored in a fashion that minimizes sun exposure and that gel coat should easily do another few decades.

I would not respray unless there were many areas with significant gel damage.

Plus the boats value will be better in the future. Resprayed is a flag for the boat had major damage.


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[NautiqueJeff]

Here is an example of one of the boats I restored that required a PARTIAL respray. Only part of this one side was resprayed. The rest was just wet sanded and buffed. Anything less than this type of damage I would never put out the money to respray when the original gelcoat can come back so nice. You'll see that the other side of the boat looks just as good as the resprayed side.

This boat was washed away from a dock in a storm and spent several days upside down on the rocks.

https://www.planetnautique.com/vb5/f...905#post609905

[brucem]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. That boat looks fabulous. There are no major gel coat issues so I'll heed your advice and go the wet sanding route. I'll post a follow-up pic in the future with the results.

[NautiqueJeff]

I look forward to seeing the pictures! That Canyon Mist color looks great when it is all buffed out.

[brucem]

Here's an after picture. I think Kevin and team at KMG boats did a great job.

[NautiqueJeff]

Looks great!!!

[MN Ryan]

That looks like it came out really well!

[Scooter G]

Beauty, very very nice!
Now for the trailer...