Gel Coat Repair

Bearbait · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 12:56 pm Post subject: Gel Coat Repair

I've got the boat in the garage and have it pretty well disasembled for a major overhaul over the winter. One of the projects will be to fill unneeded holes where some piece of equipment used to live. As I pondered the work last night I decided to count the holes and came up with 116 holes, from 1/8"-3/8", that need to be filled. Filling won't be difficult but what should I do about the gelcoat? I'm new to this fiberglass stuff, I used to think that real men only had heavy aluminum boats! Should I get a kit with paste or do them all at once with some type of small spray system?

Redƒox · Guest

....... Proby best-off not trying to hide the holes, but simply fill with a your tinted-gelcoat thickened by powdered glass particles. It's all I do on OLD RedFox Smile

Fill all at once, stuff cures slow... Rolling Eyes

Sneaks · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:43 pm Post subject:

Wow! So many holes, so little time.

I'm not very experienced either, but I did find that the holes had to be carefully filled and the edges abraided after filling, sort of like a "countersink" shape so the gel coat has a little depth to fill. Even then it required more than one application to get the gel at and slightly above the level of the surrounding gel coat so that when you sand down, it ends up even.

If it were me, I'd practice on a few before going for the whole batch in one fell swoop, and if I had a spray outfit, I'd spray the whole batch after the initial level sanding step just to make sure all the holes are "filled to the brim."

I also follow up by taking a square of clear plastic packing tape, cutting out a circle a little larger than the hole and putting it on the adhesive side of another piece - adhesive to adhesive, then taping the gelled hole with the clear circle over the hole. Ignorance prompted that step because some gel coats will not harden properly if oxygen is present and I didn't have a clue as to what C-Dory supplied gel was.

Hopefully some better qualified Brats will teach us both a better way.

Don

C-batical · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:55 pm Post subject:

Try this website. http://www.spectrumcolor.com They have all the colors and supplies you need for repairing gelcoat. I have made numerous repairs and when finished you can't see the repair. You should first countersink the holes slightly to reduce any sharp edge. Then fill with the appropriate gelcoat. I found it important to add the surfacing agent to the gelcoat as Spectrum recommends. I basically follow their instructions which are on their website except I suggest using wet/dry sandpaper. I don't use anything coarser than 600 grade and usually finish with 1000 or 2000 grade I then machine polish with polishing compound similar to Meguiar's. Be careful not to take too much of the adjacent gel coat off when sanding. Small rubber sanding block are very helpful
Rollie/C-Batical

Pat Anderson · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:57 pm Post subject:

I'd be very interested in products used (as specifically identified as possible), sources of supply, instructions on how it is done, etc...at a level that does not assume you already know something about glass or gel...actually, I would pay for a night class at the C-Dory factory for Andrew or somebody to teach us how to deal with the little stuff ourselves...

Bearbait · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 3:00 pm Post subject:

Pat, I hope you're not asking that question to me. What I know about fiberglass work could fit in a skeeters head!

Chris Bulovsky · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:27 pm Post subject:

Id follow Gregs plan. If you your not planning to paint. That seems the most sensible approach. Keep in mind most of this stuff is temperature sensitive so a controlled heated environment is needed or nice weather. I found books by Don Casey to be very helpful. Most librarys should be able to get them.

Chris