Is this gel coat or top side paint?

[Jgcrock99]

I have a 1995 Chaparral 1930 SST. Its a two tone boat, white with burgundy around the rub rail. I am curious if the burgundy area is paint or gel coat as it is in need of restoration. Looking online, it says if the color is true all the way through it is gel coat and if you can see a different color underneath it is paint. The cracking visible in the pictures shows white leading me to consider it being paint. However, i was wondering if they may have gel coated the entire boat in white and then used a dyed gel coat over the white which would show through as pictured. Does anyone know for sure or have a way to tell for sure? Looking to sand these areas down and refinish them and need to know for sure. Thank you!

 

[Scott Danforth]

Gel.

Factory boats are not painted

To fis, sand down, and re-gel

 

[tpenfield]

Gel.

Factory boats are not painted

To fis, sand down, and re-gel

Greetings @Scott Danforth ,

Formula Boats uses DuPont Imron paint for their graphic designs - so It is possible that Chaparral does the same?

Sure looks like paint.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Greetings @Scott Danforth ,

Formula Boats uses DuPont Imron paint for their graphic designs - so It is possible that Chaparral does the same?

Sure looks like paint.

yes, I am aware that Formula uses Axalta, so does Chris Craft.

Chap is definitely Gel

 

[Jgcrock99]

Gel.

Factory boats are not painted

To fis, sand down, and re-gel

Thank you, while im glad its just the burgundy part, it's not not been happening anywhere else. Is this because of the thinner finish over the base gel?

 

[Scott Danforth]

Thank you, while im glad its just the burgundy part, it's not not been happening anywhere else. Is this because of the thinner finish over the base gel?

no, its because dark colors absorb UV light where white tends to reflect it. it is the gel breaking down due to sunlight. the red colors tend to be worse than other colors. remember, the boat was designed to last about 15 years.