For the mismatch gelcoat ….. I’m also going to suggest Andy at Boat Works today as he deals with this a lot

You need a gelcoat specialist to come to the boat and do the gelcoat match. Its an absolute art to match existing gelcoat, and will take many attempts.

You might consider contacting PPG and getting them to send out a rep with a handheld color reader. They can measure OEM gelcoat under various lighting and find you an exact color match. Just a thought.

If only God had employed the same perfectionist qualities as Matt has, we wouldn't have issues with Black Widow spiders today!😊 Stay Safe & Fair Winds!! ☘

Guys, unopened gelcoat has a shelf life of years, you shouldn't have a problem shipping it. I've saved unopened new cans of gel coat for 10 yrs , no problem

I remember reading a story about a furniture refinisher, who refinished a piece of antique furniture for a client. It had to match some existing pieces. When it was delivered, it looked horrible next to other pieces - because the refinisher had done his work under different types of lighting; they looked identical in the shop, but the client’s lighting was different, so the finishes were different colors. What he ended up doing was purchasing the same lighting that the client had, and refinishing it again to match. It’s possible that your lighting is different than the lighting of the chip analyzer. Fluorescent lighting, for example, gives off a green tint. I would recommend that you test the colors under sunlight, which is how your boat will be viewed when it comes out of the tent. (The tent itself may even be giving off a tint.)

@pjparkjd

8 ай бұрын

Even if they got gelcoat from the factory, it wouldn't match year-old gelcoat. If they get a perfect match today, it may not be a perfect match a year from now. Even if it matches at noon in full sun, it might not match in morning haze. They need to figure out how to hide the shade changes rather than eliminate them. Some day they are going to need to make a repair and they are going to want to know how to accomplish this.

The amount and thickness of the gel coat you apply is probably different than them. I believe this has an affect on tone

You need to use a high intensity color corrected lamp. They come handheld. Find an auto body painter. They color match many times a day. And are the real experts!

Regarding the gelcoat not matching. If the colors are really close, then if you do the painting up to a crease or an edge then it will be far less noticeable.

@CharlesHopkins

8 ай бұрын

And regarding the thru-hulls. Can you put them on opposite sides of the hull?

@philkakid5617

8 ай бұрын

Based on my 25 years of FRP boat building, it is unlikely you will get an exact match. We ran into this problem in the factory because even batch numbers created gelkote matching issues. We would spray areas from radius to radius so that any color or shade difference is not noticeable. Don’t be surprised if the third company’s effort falls short of your expectations.

@donb4386

8 ай бұрын

Not being able to match colours must be very frustrating. After your careful attention to detail with the prep work you’ll see the subtle mismatch of colours for the life of the boat. I hope you’re able to find a solution.

@jsorbieus

8 ай бұрын

Totally agree, it’s nearly impossible to match colors from different vendors, if possible try a trim or accent line to separate the colors.

Matt…like you, I’ve been discouraged with the gelcoat color match of “big” suppliers, of the 4 boats I’ve owned and needed to make a gelcoat repair, none has been a “dead on” match. I finally went to color matching myself, based on a process I saw on a KZread channel, Boatworks Today. It takes awhile to do, but I’ve been able to exactly match existing to new material. You might give it a look and see if it would work for you.

This is great for my color blindness. It matches perfectly. Saving time and money.

Can you get a small sample of Pure White Gel Coat and see if that’s closer. Matt as your a perfectionist as I you deciding to move onto something else is the best idea. Come back to it another day. If your water passes through a UV light that will sterilise your water hopefully remove any bacteria 🦠 Great video Guy’s as always

If it was me, I would send back to the company that provided this gel coat both an original color chip plus a chip of the color sprayed with their product and ask them to fix it. Sending to a third company that is just going to try again using an automatic matching machine will get the same answer again. (I worked for a while at a company that did custom color matching for plastics, essentially the same process as you had done for the gel coat. - I used to match the colors for bumpers on upcoming Corvettes among other things. I recommend you work with one supplier rather than having another company make their set of mistakes!)

Wow, every step is a new lesson to learn. Matching light shades, especially gray (or white), is challenging. You two have such an impressively high level of self expectation. You hold yourselves to such a high bar. I haven't seen you "just let it go" yet. And, man, Matt just can't catch a break. The boat building gods just keep toying with him. Well they picked the wrong guy, or couple, because I haven't seen anyone back down yet. Bring it!!! I hope this shakes itself out soon for you. And Connor was good comedic relief!

i don't know about gel coat color matching but automotive paints can be bought with what are sometimes referred to as Tint packages. You get a small can of each color that is used to make the color you are ordering. you'de be surprised how many colors go into making a white. This allows you to tint it yourself. If it needs to go lighter then add the lightest color in the tint package. Those color matching machines only get it in the ballpark. Using your eyeballs is much more precise. It shouldn't be a problem getting consistency if you add the same amount of tint, using a scale for measurement, to each gallon you're using

Also you may have to spray a primer sealer over all the different filler color to make them uniform before using the topcoat. Base color will affect the gelcoat.

@MJSailing

8 ай бұрын

It was off even when feathering over the original gelcoat.

The work involved is huge, respect for the project stamina you guys possess.

When you send the sample be sure to also send a sample of what you have now so they can see clearly what is going wrong...

Two thoughts on gel coat. I'm guessing that like most covering the gel coat is slightly translucent. I would take a look at the undercoat or primer. If that turns out not to be the problem I'd consider finding a product readily available in the States and resign yourself to ultimately covering the entire boat. Given time and sweat equity lost it may pay for itself. Lookin' good. Hang in there.

@davidhakes3884

8 ай бұрын

I think you may have hit it right ON.

@johnsherborne3245

8 ай бұрын

From my paint chemistry days most whites are titanium dioxide which gives a very bright clean white, but it’s also expensive so most companies use chalk as an extender. Nothing wrong with this, but it has slightly different opacities.

@RoscoeJames

8 ай бұрын

It pains me to say this but I also believe your manufacturer is doing a disservice by selling a kit that has very specific gel coat characteristics and not making that gel coat available in the States. I have to guess you guys aren't the first or only kit builders to have this issue. And if you are they should take this as a learning experience and solve the problem.

I know the feeling... but you know what they say, dont let perfection be the enemy of good enough

Def speak to experienced painters about techniques for blending and using the panel shape to disguise edges.

Looking great Team :))

It was nice seeing you in Annapolis. Color matching gel coat is an absolute art. Not being able to get it from the manufacturer is a huge problem. The only thing I can tell you is to try buffing it out. The color might match better then. Otherwise, you’re gonna have to come up with a mix yourself. Not easy but the experience will sure help you with repairs in the future.

Maybe you should consider a two-tone boat? Kind of like a 1960's Dodge DeSoto? Or just tell people you wanted the boat to have a tie-dyed look? Good luck finding a match! Hard to imagine your friend Comor considers sanding clothes lockers fun! He is a true friend. Enjoyed the video as always.

I like the truth in the challenges that come with the build.

Your videos just do something to my heart. Thank you.

It'll cause more damage than good if you move the stander too quick because it leaves circles everywhere

Gelcoat matching - forget it! Even if you were to get some of the original colour from the original supplier it still wouldn't match. If you insist on a match then your best bet is to call in an experienced professional who will have the practiced eye necessary to predict the colour shifts as it sets. There are so many variables that will affect the shade - temperature, humidity, sunlight, etc. Sometimes I feel even the phase of the planetary alignments affecting the fairies at the bottom of your garden [;)] will change the shade and you end up with your head disappearing in Uranus trying to get a perfect match. And even if you were to get a match now, after a few years of UV, from sunlight, it would have faded to a different shade. After years of trying to get a match on my boat I found the only real answer is to live with it. There are two choices here:- (A) Accept the discrepancy. Gather the karma to say 'I did the best I could, there it is', Most people won't notice it. (2) My favourite is to make a feature of it. Use a different colour that enhances the lines of the panel, shape or whatever of the part you repaired. Or a graphic to cover the area. Or pinstriping to separate the areas. There are many options.

You’re doing great. Keep up the good work 😊.

Excellent progress on the boat good luck with the color match.

I have a suggestion, Make your boat gel coat 2 tone. I have seen boats doing that.

Great progress guys, pretty frustrating to have to move the boat, but great that you had an extra pair of hands at the time.

Very beautiful. 😊👍

Great job to the both of you and your perseverance to keep motivated on such a big project. Love the updates and look forward to the final result. may have a chance to drop down to see in person next spring as I not too far north. Enjoyed the visit to Vancouver Island, although I may be biased as I grew up there. Kevin from Canada

Man is that frustrating. I guess there's no other choice but to keep keepin' on. You'll get there eventually. Thanks for another interesting episode!

I’d recommend Fiberglass Coatings in St Pete Florida. Their matching is dead on.

Do it yourself. Start with a white lighter than the needed finish. Add the colors used by whoever has done a computer match for the last sample you feel is the correct tone.. Try 10% of the per gallon or per quart if possible, amount they used. Do a spray out on cardboard to check the match. Go up from there.

Put the trhough holes further apart or there will be bad stuff getting sucked into the watermaker, remember dumping bad stuff tends to bloom once it hits water. So I magine a cloud of shit around the exit, even while the ship is moving a long. It wont stay there for long, but it could be long enough and that's why sucking in water should not happen anywhere close to where you push things out.

matt, You may be surprised that once in the sun the differences will be negligible.Extend out your gel coat fairing to a joint or corner to hide the transition.Rossco

@MJSailing

8 ай бұрын

Thanks Rossco. I took the cutout from right next to this piece and sprayed a strip down the middle. After polishing it up, I took it outside and angled it all directions to see if it was just the tent playing tricks on me.... Unfortunately it wasn't. It was obviously dark down the middle - confirmed by multiple people - and really was off a good bit. I'm sure we could get closer, but paint is looking pretty good now.

Don't forget it's not just the Gelcoat colour you have to deal with, what is over also affects the shade. Like you test the colour tint result over grey and then white undercoat, over grey the white looks muddy and over white it looks bright, You really need to match the process used by the manufacturer or the boats going to look like a patchwork quilt.

There are a ton of local experts who blend and mix to match in the Annap area, someone can help with the matching. I had a older guy who since has passed who was a magician, a lot of to get it close based upon a close pre-match base. I will try to make contact with some I respect for their structural glass work and send them to your channel. It is a test of patience and art, mostly patience. Maybe another viewer will see this post and offer some educated advise. I have someone close to me and I will stop tomorrow 10/15 who has 35 -40 years and may be able to help. Watch for another message Monday or Tuesday with hopefully contact info. I was 0ver to visit with you last year maybe and have been following along since you unloaded her from the containers. Keep you nose to the mill you are doing it right.

There is an old saying that perfection is the enemy of good. Those who are perfectionists by nature can drive themselves crazy and broke. Good enough is good enough unless structural integrity is at risk.

Have you tried asking MaxCruise for the RAL or Munsell color code? Your gelcoat provider could then mix according to the color standard.

Looking good🎉 on this video it looks like a match but maybe not in person 🎉

That would be extremely frustrating.

Learn to color your own gelcoat. It's much easier than you think if you have someone show you how. You can find every gelcoat repair I paid to have done, but once I learned to tint my own gelcoat every repair since is invisible.

P95 pre filters please. VOC don't filter particulate only fumes. The project is looking great.

@markcarpenter6837

8 ай бұрын

Matt thinks the voc filter will filter particulates. I think that 3m knows better. Perhaps he will find out when he ages and has lung issues.

for the water i would use a uv light !

You can also give your gel coat supplier feed back telling them it was too dark and ask them if they can lighten it up. You are giving people one shot and expecting them to hit the bullseye on the first try.

@MJSailing

8 ай бұрын

This is the third match from one company. It wasn't explained well in the video.

@MarkLawrenceKiefer

8 ай бұрын

Oh, well then the only suggestions I have is you are going to need to pray or spend, possibly both. I am so sorry.

Had the same problem. Turned out to be a difference in the hardener. They would not admit it, but they delivered 2 different colors of the hardener. One was slightly light blue. This resulted in a much colder white tint. The light pink hardener gave a noticeable warmer color. Same part-number, had to color-check the delivered hardener 1 by 1 before use.

Have them use the gelcoat they mix as a sample to a new gelcoat and compare the recipes, so they can adjust it.

There must be a body fender guy that comes into the bar at Kentmore, pick their brains about blending. There are some body shops that do real high end exotic restoration. There is a huge number of those guys in the area so next time you see a nice hot rod chat em up. I remember my gelcoat magician spent several days of trial and error for even small jobs. It was fascinating to watch the process

Sounds like it would be easier to just prep and refinish the whole boat. 🤷🏻😎

Yeah, Guy, that you have helped you need some more super vision. Hes moving the Sander too quick. Hes not giving the same paper a chance to work.

Ask the company in Vietnam to send you the color formula so you can have it blended to their color tint in the US

@mathuelee2686

8 ай бұрын

Unless they can get an exact base color from the same batch it's kinda hard

The thing is you are so meticulously paying attention to details that a difference in colour is unacceptable. I totally agree.

I was worried about that when I saw Sophie grinding. Simple fix. Paint the entire boat.

One other thought - perhaps the supplier that produced the gel coat used in the factory would be willing to share the formula they use since they do not sell retail.

Pro body painters would pull me gel coat to body lines or panel lines to make match better. Great work

The color problem is likely your white from Vietnam is in Natural light and the sampling company machine is using florescent lighting to read the color chip. have them use daylight correction in their machine color reading machine.

Maybe better sticking with the same supplier, let them rectify/adjust formula. Rather than starting from beginning.

See if your gel coat company has a camera like with automotive paint they can bring a camera out to you and it will read the pigments on your boat it's very accurate with standox water based paint

We ran into this with cabinet shop paint. The gov’t changed standards/epa standards re: umber which is a tint used to make white. They had to change their white colors because of this. I don’t know if gelcoat is similar but it would seem to be.

Contact the shipyard and ask them for the RAL code for the pigment used in the gel-coat they used. Any paint or colour you use should have the same RAL code - don't rely on machines scanning paint samples. If you can't find pre-pigmented gelcoat with the correct RAL code, source the correct pigment yourself and ask the resin manufacturer to provide pigment free resins. You can mix the two together yourselves relatively easily

I don't know about gel coat, but when I have my home store try to match my house paint, that never is very close. It is always off. I don't think you are going to get a match that way, if they are using the same sort of system. Best of luck getting a match!

I would contact a car painter who specilaices in old car restaurations they most often blend collor with their eyes.

Have to use the same technique "Parlay" does. Seems they have it down.

the water intake for the osmosis plant should be forward, at a good distance from the wastewater outtake.

Blend it yourself, take pure white gel coat and add it to the darker gel coat. To lighten it up.

@philkakid5617

8 ай бұрын

Doing it hit and miss never ends well. Gelkote matching is totally different from matching house or automotive paint, and even with the sophisticated equipment that reputable companies, the match is rarely 100%. The best bet is to paint from radius to radius to minimize any visual discrepancy.

I warned y’all about color matching white is most difficult. MOST companies use similar color matching machines like big box home improvement centers. That route is not going to work. It can get close but even a gram of carbon black or titanium can cause a drum to be off-color. I am not a color matching expert but I know the handful of people who are on the planet. My company color matched thousands of different colors by eye. It’s an amazing talent. One of the best now lives in Sweden. Variations in the base material before colorants are added can vary widely (example: variations in Alpha color of the BPA used in the epoxy. Have you discussed buying enough gelcoat to do the whole boat over a color absorbing base coat. Have you chosen the material to be used below the waterline?

I still see you building, 2years into it , I also see your views are dropping, pity it’s not finished, good luck to get it finished, check back in a year.

The original gelcoat hardened against the surface of the mould. The sprayed gelcoat is hardened at the air en the chemical proces is different. I had a company in thuis branche for thirty years. The only solution we used to do is spray the last layer with “double coat” from Hollandse IJssel in the Netherlands.

@MJSailing

8 ай бұрын

By double coat, do you mean spray heavy and plan on sanding back down?

get someone to fly out of vietnam with a vial of the gelcoat used and get that to the company mixing it

Sorry you're having such a hard time. (Really) but on the bright side worst case scenario you can make a Partidge Family bus

I'm sure you thought of this but why not have max cruise give you color formula or have them request it from paint manufacturer then your stuff should be right on the money.

It may have been perfect in the mix, but the wax may be screwing it up as it surfaces. It's why I used to prefer flowcoat and spray wax onto the surface after. But that was a few years ago and modern compositions may be better now.

I am a painter I've been painting for 20 years and I do color matches all the time. The computer system that they use very rarely gets it right. The first time they have to tweak it. After it's done or else it won't match. Sherwood Williams is good abut it also matters who's doing it if they're qualified. That's the bottom line if you can't find a good. Paint Man then you're screwed. You should ask how long they've been doing it before you allow them.

watch parlay revival they had this issue and had it eye matched on site

Bite the bullet and paint the whole boat use what you have as a base coat

Maybe reach out to Andy from boat works today. He might have some advice for you guys and is a fellow KZreadr.

What about a UV light for the water maker

Can you airship the gel coat?

Could you paint entire boat?

did the manufacturer or your catamaran have any ideas what color to use

NASA/spacex could use your quality contorls!!!

I don't know shit about boats but I would put waste drain aft on one side and water maker fwd on other side of the boat that's just me. 12inches...will it be fine.. probably but idk maybe I'm just to careful.

Most likely its a definite comical Mach coming from different countries my guess is it's in the theater and harders but it could have definite comical in the paint being from 2 definite countries. Most likely that means what thay used can't be spade in this country so you might have to spray it all. It suckes big time but that is Most likely the problem.

Have the company that makes for max cruise send the formula to a gel coat manufacturer in the US

Who is the maker of the gelcoat, which is used by Max Cruise? They would have the exact colour code, with the specific formulae and percentages of all of the colours used to produce the specific shade.

You cant get the color match code from max cruise?

Would the airline and CBP frown on 50 kilos of checked gel coat from Asia? 😂

I am confused. Is waste discharge near water maker intake?!

Is it not possible to buy the same brand and recipe gel coat that the mfg used ?

no video this Sat =(

Been color matching on textiles for 40+ years. Not an expert on pigments though. If you have access to a Black light try looking at the difference between the factory and new gel coat at night under the black light. If there is a larger difference under this light it could be due to the difference in the amount of optical brightener in the two polymers. Most color matching instruments are operating under light sources with UV light excluded which can cause problems when the finished product is being viewed in sun light which has plenty of UV light in it.

@MJSailing

8 ай бұрын

Cool idea! And it's the issue that I think is happening here

Have to tried to contact the company in Vietnam that made the original gelcoat and ask if they could send you the formula they use so you can give that formula to a company in the USA to copy. Is it going to be safe to put the thru hole for waste water that close to the water for the water maker. I'd think you'd want that waste water thru hull as far away from your drinking water as possible.

What happens when you have to change out a through-hull?

@MJSailing

8 ай бұрын

Cut them out. It's how we typically replace through hulls anyway around the boat yard as it's faster, but this just requires a bit more grinding on the inside

18:57

I remember when my house was painted and I requested "white". I was shown a bewildering array of shades of "white" which resulted in total BS. I chose one, then another and finally I said "hospital @#$%ing white". How hard could it be ?! Apparently, in the age of computers "color matching" is more difficult than ever and no-one can answer why that is. I may just epoxy the entire boat and stain it all different colors everywhere ... Thank you

I am no gel coat or paint expert, but here are my thoughts, if you are sending out samples to 3 different shops, there is no telling what each machine will give out as a formula, i understand the theory thats its supposed to match exactly but reality is proving otherwise. most body shops need to " tweek" what they have and sometimes it is noticeable . Did you get the formula from each shop? are they the same? to put it another way each machine might not analyse it the same way. Different batches of paint/ gel coat are not necessarily the same either. At the factory when they sprayed the molds, it was most likely the same batch or if they had different batch numbers you can mix the two to get a homogenous color/hue. is it possible to work with one supplier and fine tune what you need? can a professional painter help you out? these are just idea's and some food for thought. Cheers and keep the videos coming