My cobra rep had a gel coat finish and it was great but imperfect.
Didn't suffer any fading over 10 years or so and didn't do any more than wax it after the initial surface prep.
Trouble was it was imperfect and whilst not noticeable from a few feet away, I knew the imperfections were there. Things like mould lines not fully filled with gel coat, pinholes, star crack from delivery (grrr). Any repair I did with a pot of gelcoat from the supplier ended up with a dark 'ring' around the repair area and seemingly no way of getting rid.
Surface prep is key as well. As it came, you could see the impression of the chopped strand matt through the gelcoat, a bit like orange peel for paint, so the entire bodywork needed wet sanding in various grades and polishes until it had all gone (to be fair I would do the same with a paint finish to get rid of orange peel) but the resulting finish was worth it.
I'd choose gel coat again on a budget build as long as I could see examples of the manufactures out of the mould finish but for me the next project will be painted.
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Hybrid Mode
