Gel Coat Questions

[Wandering Sagebrush]

I have a small ding in my starboard chine where the boat came down on one of the trailer shackle bolts.

I just realized that my boat came with a gelcoat kit that has sat in the shop since 2005. I opened it, and to no surprise it was fairly solid. I haven't messed with it, but am curious if there is a way to still use it to repair my chine. Any experts? Dr. Bob?

 

[AstoriaDave]

Nope, that batch is dead. Depending on the temperature, and how it was packaged, you can expect a couple years or so.

 

[thataway]

Agree 100% with Dave. Toss that. Check with Spectrum color and see if they have the C Dory white--I saw some advertised recently....But at times they only have larger sizes: Here is the paste in white.

 

[Marco Flamingo]

I just bought the little container Bob shows and fixed last year's major battle scars. The color matched perfectly and the only issue was the quality of my workmanship. The instructions give a mixing ratio for using 1/2 of the container at a time, way more than what I needed. But I eyeballed about 1/8th of the gel and the corresponding number of drops of catalyst and it worked out fine.

I'll probably get more practice soon and won't have to worry about it going bad.
One problem was that I filled a couple of big gouges with a black epoxy. If I had used a white epoxy it would have made things a lot easier.

Mark

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Thanks everyone. IBoat only has the gallon, so I'm checking with NMI. Worst case, it will be clear epoxy. The ding is really small, and on the chine, so it's not a big deal if I can't match it.