Gel coat: How to get started?

[schrater]

I’ve got a pretty bad gouge I need to repair. I’ve never done anything with fiberglass before. I don’t know if I need to reinforce with mesh and epoxy, or just cover with gel coat and sand. Anyone know of a “starter kit”? How do I deal with the part in the groove? Looking for pointers to get me on the right track.

 

[GoneFarrell]

I've had good luck with a gelcoat repair kit that I got at Fisheries, Seattle. They are widely available.

They come with clear Mylar overlay sheets that flatten the repair out as it hardens.

I would start with the long gouge to the left to get familiar with how it works, get the mix/color match right. Get a kit of flexible body putty repair blades at auto parts to lay the stuff in.

After that, the Mylar cover sheet could be kinked to fit close to the groove after removing any highside burrs.

I had some trepidation before doing gel repair, now it is just another part of my repair skills. Do this with temps in the 60s/70s, out of direct sun.


Good luck!

 

[Codger2]

I’ve got a pretty bad gouge I need to repair......Looking for pointers to get me on the right track.

My boat looked a hell of a lot worse than your so I did the only thing a "yachtsman" could do. I hired the resident gel coat repair guy and now you can't even tell I had a problem!

 

[Comodave]

It is a skill that takes some practice to get good at it. You might look for any damage where it isn’t as obvious and start there before you go for a repair that will be easily seen.

 

[Bacchus]

A piece of clear mylar ( old overhead projector sheets) work great for mixing & matching colors. It allows you to place the mixture over the area to check color match. Adjust if necessary, until you get it right.

 

[ghost]

First, fully sand the inside of that crack, open it up if you can’t get every last part of it. Then sand the surrounding gel coat with say 100 grit, roughly 4 to 5 inches outside the scratched area. Now get some color matched gel coat, with wax. Fill the crack just barely below the surface and let it set, then lightly sand it again, you should be smooth and just slightly below the level you want. Mask everything that has not been sanded. Get a preval sprayer, thin until it will,spray and spray the crack, letting the overspray blend with the surrounding gel coat. Spray just proud of the surface. Now progressively sand with every grit until 1000 and switch to compound to finish polishing with a buffer.


If you just fill the crack without blending, you will always see the transition edge, whether your gel is perfectly matched or not.

It’s hard to explain the subtle parts, and there are a lot of them, but also not rocket science. Color matching the gel is the hard part, even when you have the correct gel color as every side of your boat will be a different color because of the sun and fading, which is why blending the repair is 100% necessary.

Get a good gel coat guy and pay him whatever he wants, or learn yourself. You will never get a good outcome from somebody trying to do an economical repair. It requires skill and patience that don’t come in the same box with the average repair guy.