Got some checking in finish

Any suggestions on the best approach to this issue?

Depends on how pervasive they are and what you are willing to do to fix them. My gel coat is way too thick in places and was cracking badly. In some places I ground the crack with a dremel tool and then filled them. In places that the gel coat was really thick and really cracked, I used my belt sander and removed all the gel coat and then filled and sanded until smooth. I also had a lot of cracks in the hull where the PO hit everything with the boat. I ground the cracks out with a right angle drill and 36 grit rollock pads. Then fiberglassed and filled and sanded. Then I painted the hull and around the sundeck. Now having done the cabin, flybridge and decks last year, all that is left to paint is the radar arch. It was a tremendous amount of work. But it came out great. The problem is if you are not painting the whole boat is it is hard to match the faded gel coat, at least for me anyway.

It sounds like a project I need to plan more time for than I have available right now. Maybe this winter.

Oh yes, it is definitely time intensive which is what makes it a good DIY project. If you pay to have it done it will eat up all of your available resources and if you do it yourself it will just eat up all of your available time and a bit more. Not too difficult to do and if you don’t like the way it comes out you can regrind it out and do it over. Good luck.

Comodave said:

Oh yes, it is definitely time intensive which is what makes it a good DIY project. If you pay to have it done it will eat up all of your available resources and if you do it yourself it will just eat up all of your available time and a bit more. Not too difficult to do and if you don’t like the way it comes out you can regrind it out and do it over. Good luck.

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You are so depressing lol

L

No, I meant that post as a positive in that it is a DIYable job. It will just consume your life... And when we sprayed the hull, I found countless spots that I had missed. But it still looks wonderful. And I was able to afford it. My painter that sprayed it said he would have charged about $25,000 to do all the work. It cost me about $3000 including the time I paid him for spraying.

Comodave said:

No, I meant that post as a positive in that it is a DIYable job. It will just consume your life...

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Still... You are so depressing lol (just kidding)

L

Oh yeah that was sort of the point. It is wonderful now that I am done. It was not only depressing but daunting while I was doing the work. I spent every day for about 8 weeks working as long as I could each day to get it done. Granted I cannot work as long as I used to but I did the best I could. The depressing thing was when I was ready to paint the painter walked into the barn and from about 30 feet away he said that I had weeks of more work to do... I was way beyond disappointed. I did go back and do it more and better.

Comodave said:

Oh yeah that was sort of the point. It is wonderful now that I am done. It was not only depressing but daunting while I was doing the work. I spent every day for about 8 weeks working as long as I could each day to get it done. Granted I cannot work as long as I used to but I did the best I could. The depressing thing was when I was ready to paint the painter walked into the barn and from about 30 feet away he said that I had weeks of more work to do... I was way beyond disappointed. I did go back and do it more and better.

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So if I understand now you are done so you should have some free cycle right? I have so many things to do lol

L

Now I actually get to use the boat for a bit of a cruise. We have about 70 PATONs to verify for the Coast Guard. My project list is a bit smaller but still absolutely consuming of my time. It is a good thing I am retired now so I can get all the boat stuff done. I was going to send you a ticket to come help me with my next project. Have not decided exactly which project I am going to start next. Maybe teak sundeck refinishing or a galley refit. Maybe bow thruster. Time will tell.

Comodave said:

Now I actually get to use the boat for a bit of a cruise. We have about 70 PATONs to verify for the Coast Guard. My project list is a bit smaller but still absolutely consuming of my time. It is a good thing I am retired now so I can get all the boat stuff done. I was going to send you a ticket to come help me with my next project. Have not decided exactly which project I am going to start next. Maybe teak sundeck refinishing or a galley refit. Maybe bow thruster. Time will tell.

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No problem give me some time to get rid of my to do list (20 to 40 years) and I am starting your next project.
Now I am depressing lol

L

It’s going to be one of those projects I definitely have to do by myself. Getting close to retirement age and not wanting to give anyone $25k go something I could do myself at the proper time.

Do I understand correctly that the repair is initially done with gel coat then prepped for painting?

Sand, Sand, Sand, Sand some more!

Deep cracks should be dremeled out with a V bit. West system with microballons for repair. Large area needs to be ground down first with 36 grit. Then 80 Grit. Use belt sander, DOA, multi-tool, or Roloc's depending upon size of area. Fair with West system and microballons. Sand again. Fair again. Sand again. You might be able to finish with 120 grit if you have a light touch.

I used Interlux primers and 1 part Brightside for paint. Applied with roller or brush, tipped with foam. Came out OK. Not perfect but OK. Spray would have been a better choice.

Sanding just took weeks. It's a lot of surface area. Not a job I'd care to repeat anytime soon.

Is the West system gelcoat or epoxy?

Next question. This is deck level mostly. How does one treat the nonskid portions?

West System is epoxy. I used polyester resin for most of the repairs and a poly filler. Then primed and painted. Generally if you use epoxy you need to keep using epoxy as the poly won’t stick well to epoxy. Sanding is critical. I used a revealer that you wipe on and then sand. It will reveal where the low spots are since it is black and the low spots don’t get sanded off. Then you clean it off and fill again and repeat several more times.

Hi. Can you provide info on how you painted the arch?
Thank you.

Nora0406 said:

Hi. Can you provide info on how you painted the arch?
Thank you.

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Who are you referring to? If it was directed towards me, I actually never got to the arch before I sold the boat. But I was going to roll and tip it since spraying would have been really tough to get it all masked off so overspray won’t get all over.

This doesn't look like traditional gelcoat cracking. Looks like it will need to stripped down to bare gelcoat, primed, sanded and painted. How much of the boat is like this? It is isolated or the whole boat?