Thanks very much.  This is all great info!  Please keep posting your progress and I would be very interested to know how it goes tonight after you spray the gelcoat.   Also, are you doing a diamond pattern for the deck...would be interested to know what you use to get a pattern...

Thank you! I appreciate the praise. First off I am an amateur taking on this project for my personal challenge and enjoying my trial and errors along the way. What I do may or may not be the way the pros would do it but I’m just enjoying the experience. With that said I prefer gel coat over paint because in my opinion it is easier to patch and fix later and besides the entire boat is gel coat so why not keep it. Yes, paint finished nicer ans may be easier to apply but it may get complicated later with fixing paint on existing gel coat.  Gel coat has a learning curve to apply it properly with minimal work fairing it smooth to make it look as good as paint. I have applied gel coat in molds by dump gun but I have never tried to do large presentable section like this floor with the hopes of good results. What I have learned through trial and error is spraying gel will yield better results than brushing it. It isn’t very consistent like good paint. Rolling and tipping doesn’t work as it is too thick and likes to stick to itself and glob. I am going to be spraying it with a dump gun. I think an HPLV gun is difficult because of the limited work time before it sets up in the gun and you need to dismantle for full cleaning. You don’t have to worry about clogging anything in a dump gun as you only have a large tip to clean. You can thin gel coat a small percentage with styrene (5%? I have to double check my percent) to make it shoot smoother but then you lose thickness and buildup and you may have to adjust tip size.  Also there are additives like Duratec which thins it, makes it easier to spray and gives gloss. I have not used the duratec yet nor will I for the floor as I don’t want it too shiny and slick. I will use it on the transom and the cap. Also I am going to spray non skid sections in a tan color gel later so no sense under coating with expensive duratec.
Sorry if I rambled but that’s about all I know. I think tonight may be the night I spray the floor so I will address some of your questions as I write about my experience spraying. I figure the floor is a safe starting point to practice with the dump gun because it’s easiest to sand versus curves and shapes on the cap. Also much of the floor is covered by the coffin box and center console so if I screw up bad I don’t need to fix the entire floor… just where it will show. If I have decent success with the floor then I will look to spray the transom after its rebuild. Then I would like to take on the rest of the cap to behind the rub rail. One step at a time. Let’s see how tonight goes. In the mean time keep asking around, search videos and websites and search other builds to get an understanding of the many techniques for both paint and gelcoat and go with the one that makes sense to you.

Slow going on the prep work. Started chipping away at the factory defects where the gel coat was not backed well and was hollow and easy to chip. I made quite a mess. Definitely a lot of small repairs before I can shoot the floor. I’m going to fair all the imperfections with a “peanut butter” of gelcoat and cabosil which will be around the hatches, around the gas tank tub, the entire radius around where the floor turns up toward the gunwales and the pictured factory flaws. I also need to filet chop strand above the floor drains where the transom bulkhead meets the side gunwales. Didn’t get quite as far as I wanted to today and tomorrow is a little busy for me but I only have about 2 days of weather before a cold spell on Wednesday. A lot of small details that need to be addressed because I know they will annoy the hell out of me if I can see something I could have addressed before finish coat. I’m not a perfectionist by any means but I came this far I don’t want to be lazy in the 11th hour.

Ugh what a difference a day makes. It was damp the day I laid the 3rd layer and it got quite cool out. It gassed pretty bad over night speckled the perfect layer with small bubbles. Not a huge deal but definitely annoying and irritating to me. It’s going to warm up a bit for sat and Sunday which should give me enough time for some gelcoat fairing and to shoot a floor layer. I am doubting I will have time for the outer transom closure this fall  but hopefully we take a warm spell in the coming weeks.

It also started with a new bucket of poly. Do you sometimes get a bad batch?