keel gel goat fix

frank kartch · Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 7 Photos: Frank Kartch

Hello C-brats.

Have owned 22 foot cruiser for 10 years. recently at dock a high wind came up and snapped rope from wrap around. The cdory banged up above dock rubber and stripped off a 10 inch piece of gel coat in jagged chips above safety chain ring. Hard to take after keeping such good care of her.

Went to boat place and they wanted 800 dollars to fix. Too much for retired couple... should I buy a keel guard for 140 dollars and cut a short piece off to cover over the chipped area or is there another fix?

2004 cdory.

Good forum discussions.

Thanks

Frank

colobear · Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 1:49 am Post subject:

If you can, take a picture and post it. If you can't post it here put it in your album. That will make it easier to give thoughts about what to do.

thataway · Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 5:12 pm Post subject:

Agree with Barry. You will have to ask moderator for an Album (Da Nag or TyBoo). The other option is to gel coat the area, after filling it. Polyester makes it easier to have the gel coat adhere. The photo will help use know how bad a damage there is, and how to best repair it. The $800 is going to be mostly labor. Generally this area is fairly easy to repair. You may have to lay a little mat in there if it is really deep, but it is possible that some filler and polyester resin, followed by Gel coat will do fine. The material costs should be less than the $140. Spectrum Color paste:
http://www.spectrumcolor.com/ProductDesc.aspx?code=F5517000K&type=4&eq=&desc=F5517000K is going to set you back about $29, plus shipping, if you need resin, and mat you should be able to pick that up for somewhere in the $30 range for a pint or quart of resin and a square of mat--or it may be better to use filler (not Bondo!) A good marine filler for a quart with catalyst should be around $30--or less if you can find a pint. A couple of plastic spatchula/spreaders, $5, and some sandpaper, and a pint of acetone, maybe a Preval sprayer--or brush for the gel coat--still under the cost of the Keel Guard.

I am not a huge fan of the Keel guards for hiding cosmetic damage. They do work well for the "V" where it rubs on rocks, sand or trailers however.

frank kartch · Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 7 Photos: Frank Kartch

Thanks Patti, Barry and Bob for your responses.

I have a pic of damage. Also my 2004 cdory has a brass keep guard from
chain ring down.

How do I attach pic using "post a reply".

Frank and Pat kartch

DuckDogTitus

frank kartch · Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 7 Photos: Frank Kartch

thanks all for response....sent message for start up album and hopefully can get pics to forum.

Thanks

Frank Kartch

Jack in Alaska · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 1:47 am Post subject: gunnel/keel guard

I used keel guard on the gunnels of my 22' CD. I wanted to protect the glass when pulling the anchor. The guard worked for about 3 yrs. and then the adhesive let go on half of it and then it looked like hell. After my son bought the boat he took it all off and cleaned up the gunnels.

frank kartch · Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 7 Photos: Frank Kartch

Hello

posted two pics in my album,,,

are they available to all now or do I need to do another step?

thanks everyone

Frank

rogerbum · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 7:33 pm Post subject: Re: gel coat damage pics

rogerbum · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 7:42 pm Post subject:

I looks to me like you used to have a keel guard on there, no? That's a fair bit of gel coat but you can do the job yourself. To do it well will involve grinding out quite a bit more gelcoat on either side of the chipped out area until you have a nice bevel. You'll also need to clean up all the glue from whatever was there. Then you can use a pre-mix epoxy filler (there's a variety of choices here) to level out the surface. With a little time, some patience and a lot of sanding, you can get back to a fairly smooth surface to which you can finally apply gelcoat and sand back down to a nice finish. One of the keys to getting a good smooth fix will be to remove quite a bit more material that you initially think in order to allow you to bring in the new material with a nice transition. If I recall from a gelcoat repair class we took a few years back, I think Scott was recommending that we remove about 3-5 times the diameter of a chip in order to get a smooth repair. In your case that would be 3-5 times the width of the gouge.

Sea Wolf · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 8:38 pm Post subject:

srbaum · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 9:24 pm Post subject:

Frank,
Sometimes it is better in the long run to bite the bullet and pay a pro to do work for you. I do most all of my own maintenance and have owned over 53 boats (have 6 right now) and have maintained and or been in charge of hundreds of boats and ships. To do good gel coat work is an art (like someone that can do great body and paint work on a car) and unless you are willing to learn the art of doing this job properly before staring the project I would suggest that you defer this to a professional. If this were a minor scratch or dig, then I would say that it would be a project that your could do yourself, as the detail of a fair job, would not undermine the value of your boat.
Best regards,
Steve Baum

thataway · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 10:06 pm Post subject:

OK, now we know why a professional wanted $800 to do the fix. Is the date on the photos correct? If so this was about 6 years ago. The area of damage looks to be more than 10"--it look to go down below where the towing eye, but I cannot see it well in the photos. Can you fix this? Yes…but since it is going to be the first job, there would be a lot of experiment. It is not rocket science. This looks to be mostly gel coat, but the gel coat is thick here, and you want it to be resistant to abrasion. If you were to try, and it was not cosmetically acceptable, you have not ruined the boat. It can be professionally fixed later.

I agree, it is best to have a professional do the job. As much as I love epoxy, I would not use epoxy in this repair, because it is gong to be difficult to get this large amount of gel coat, in this vulnerable area to adhere to the underlying epoxy--especially something like Marine Tex.

What has been on there before? Adhesive, some attempts at some filler?
The grinding out would remove any loosened gel coat, which might easily lift. The taper for fiberglass repair is 1:8 to 1: 12 for the thickness or depth of the repair--not the width of the repair. You would definitely have to work the repaired area back over 2" before you are through.

It is also an art to match gel coat. Heck it is "White"--believe me there are 50 "whites" and a little tint different would make a difference. I know of very good professionals who think they have a match, do the job, then look at it after drying and buffing--and go back with a slightly "better match" Unbeknown to us, many or our boats have repairs at the factory before the boat is sent to the dealer. If you know what to look for , you will find them.

T.R. Bauer · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 11:07 pm Post subject:

As Bob noted, have a pro do it as 800 bucks isn't that much. If the 800 bucks includes a new keel guard, that isn't that bad really as they are not cheap.

I think in your case, you could fudge things a bit on based on what I am seeing. I actually think you could run some blue tape right of the edge of the line created with adhesive, then carefully sand/grind it out as other noted, fill irregularities with something other than epoxy as gel coat really does not stick to it very well (or at all in some cases), sand again until is near perfect, and then apply gel coat just to that area between the tape. Finally, you could run some 4200 on the bottom of your new keel guard and maybe not ever know it ever happened if you are careful as it could cover it perfectly. Even it didn't, you might be hard pressed to tell. If done right it wouldn't leak and even then you have a good coat of gel coat under it just in case.

Lots of people have repair experience on boats, what do you all think? It is hard to tell without actually having the boat in front of me......obviously.....LOL....

Sunbeam · Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 3:04 pm Post subject:

I don't see $800 as out of line for a good, professional job, just off the top of my head. Gelcoat work is "art" plus craft, so the folks who can do a good job of it (and who will work with obnoxious chemicals, dust, etc.) deserve their wages, in my opinion. Also, this sort of work is fiddly and time-consuming. I have a feeling if I made this repair on my boat (and achieved a like-new finish), that price divided by my hours wouldn't make me minimum wage. That's not to say it's pocket change, nor that you're wrong to check.

If you are going to do it yourself, and if you always plan to have rubber type keel protection product on the bow, you could consider fixing it with epoxy and just not gelcoat over it, but instead put on a new protector strip. Epoxy will have a better bond than polyester and is more water "proof." This is not to say you need that "betterness," but just that you won't be losing any "protection" that way, as polyester (gelcoat) is actually more permeable. On the other hand you won't have the cosmetic shiny "factory" finish, and the epoxy needs to be protected from UV (e.g. under the rubbery keel strip).