Can I take a can of white gelcoat to a paint shop and have them color it for me? I was thinking of using their color samples to match the color with me hulls.

that would at least give you a start but i think colors tend to change as they dry so it may be not that accurate

if you intend to paint the hulls then some painters have hand held color scanners that read the colors directly from a surface and then provide a maxing ratio to make up that color

or on re-reading your post are you wanting them to color the liquid white gelcoat something else, like yellow

either way better speak to them about it

I would be worried that the tint wouldn't be compatible with a resin system. A supplier of gelcoat can color match to a catalog. I know there should be a couple in your area...they're hard to find though because they are largely wholesalers.

Performance doesn't sell gelcoat? Vanguard sells 1/2 pint cans to match almost every gelcoat color they've sold in the last decade, they are $25-30 bucks but it's enough to last a while or do a decent sized project.

One problem with gelcoat is that it yellows with direct exposure to sunlight. I had gelcoat that matched my Inter 18 quite well when I first got the boat, but was too white four years later after the hulls had been exposed to sunlight.

I took the gelcoat to a paint store that mixes epoxy-based paints. I also took in one of my daggerboards to help them tint the gelcoat. What they did was add pigment, smear a little gelcoat on the board, and stop adding pigment when the gelcoat blended in with the board. While polymerized gelcoat can be a slightly different color, what the paint store returned matched far better than what I originally took to the paint store. Actually, if I had used my head, I would have taken the boat over there since the hulls had yellowed more than the boards. It took them like 5 minutes to tint the gelcoat.

Good luck.
Bob Klein