C-Forum

Can pigment be added to G-Flex epoxy? I'm repairing a Duralite hull with some deep scratches. It's a Hellman Cruiser. Any thoughts on how best to restore the color to the repaired spots? I emailed the mfg and they can sell me a liter of matching paint for $50 plus shipping. It's a two-part 4-1 mix. That sounds more complicated than what I'd want to do. If necessary, I'd just try to match it as best I could with a can of spray paint. Adding color to the epoxy would be great, though. Any ideas?

I do it all the time. Costs about $10 for a squeeze tube of color.

I have a Hellman duratuff(same difference), and I,m geting ready to re paint it and I bought 1 litre of Interlux Brightside Polyurethane single part enemal paint, in a boat shop, and it was less that 50 bucks that is for sure!!

Also the 2 part that Hellman use is realy hard to apply with a brush...

Just my 2 cents.

Where you buy the squeeze tube of color? What is it exactly?

West Marine sells it. They have stores in Knoxville and Hermitage, TN. http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... sNum=10299

And remember that it doesn't take much to color the epoxy. My local west systems shop has black, white, blue, red and yellow.
As a side note, Blackened Gflex with chopped Kevlar bits and a pinch of colloidal silica mixed in makes an excellent paddle tip protector.

I would check with West Epoxy (not Westmarine). They have always offered a limited selection of pigments. The only one I remember is white.

I would be concerned that a pigment made for polyester and vinylester resins might not be compatible with epoxy.

For boat repairs using West 105/205 or G-flex, I recommend doing all of the glasswork *without* pigment, until you get to the point of doing a fill coat with the epoxy. White for white, graphite for black.

The g-flex literature mentions

G/flex can be modified with WEST SYSTEM fillers and additives if you need to meet particular bonding needs. Adding G/flex to other WEST SYSTEM epoxies can improve their toughness and flexibility.

So it should be safe to add small amounts (as usual) within the allowable ratio. You would need to dig further, if bumping up the ratio (it wasn't readily available) I just remembered reading that it could be modified. It might be nice to experiment with Gflex - West 105 mixtures to obtain a mirror slick finish on final coat, as was mentioned in the article? Although I often do as EZWATER suggested... make sure you have enough layers to get a nice deep color, one layer on the outside often produces a thin transparent look. And on small jobs (to one side of hull) it's often easier to just mix one batch, and just go for it.

Kaz might have thoughts on pigment coating, even though he usually works with vinylester rather than epoxy. He would know about what resin thickness, with what amount of pigment, would make for a sufficiently dense surface color.

His red pigment on my Millbrook looks opaque in most light, though sometimes you can see the sun shining through when it hits the inside of the boat.