How To Repair Gel Coat On Fiberglass Boat

Prepare the scratches in your boat'southward gelcoat that sometimes occur at the docks. Canoeing Magazine

Own a fiberglass boat long plenty, and you'll end upwards with a scratch, nick or gouge in the finish. It might be from a muffed landing, a dropped pair of line-fishing pliers or just a hole drilled in the incorrect identify. Y'all can ordinarily fix gelcoat repairs yourself. It takes a bit of patience, but practise it right and few will notice.

Complications occur when there'southward harm on a textured surface similar diamond nonskid or on a multitone finish. For these, call in a pro. Also, deep gouges may need structural fiberglass piece of work or filler before you repair the gelcoat. On horizontal surfaces, liquid gelcoat works, but for vertical surfaces, a paste is easier to use. The offset stride is identifying the cease on your boat.

Getting Started
Finish Time: 1-2 hrs
Skill Level: 3/5

Tools and Supplies
*Masking tape
*Hand-held grinder and $.25
*Countersink bit and drill motor
*Gelcoat resin and catalyst
*Coloring agents
*Acetone
*Mixing cups
*Stir sticks
*Latex gloves
*Dust mask
*Cleanup rags
*Putty knife
*Wet/dry out sandpaper (320-, 600- and one,000 grit)
*PVA curing amanuensis
*Rubbing compound
*Boat wax

Y'all'll need to fill up deep gouges with resin and filler before applying finish. Epoxy resin and fillers attach amend than polyester products merely cost more and require several extra steps prior to applying the finish colour of either gelcoat or boat paint. If y'all choose pigment, topside alkyd enamels, polyurethanes and others are available from Interlux and Pettit.

How to Repair Gelcoat

Gelcoat Repair

Match the color of the gelcoat. Boating Magazine

1. Match the Color
For current boats, your dealer might exist able to supply matching gelcoat. But due to weathering on your gunkhole, information technology may not match. There are kits from companies such as Evercoat with pigments to add together to the resin for a lucifer. If you accept a sample, you can match a gallon of gelcoat from Rayplex Composites (fibreglass.com).

Gelcoat Repair

Clean up the edges where the gelcoat was damaged. Canoeing Magazine

2. Make clean Up Edges
Employ a rotary grinder to polish the edges to a 45-degree bevel and eliminate any loose material. If repairing a drilled hole, the surface might have become elevated from the upward pressure of an quondam fastener. Use a countersink scrap or rotary file and a drill motor to carefully grind abroad the swollen perimeter. Scrape away any old sealant and clean up with acetone.

Gelcoat Repair

Record off the surface area around the damaged gelcoat. Boating Magazine

3. Tape Information technology Off
Carefully mask around the edges of the fiberglass boat repair area with two-inch-wide 3M ScotchBlue Multi-Surface Painter's Record No. 2090. Give yourself a 16th of an inch of unmasked margin around the scratch, gouge or hole. Also, mask off any side by side areas or items to protect them from inadvertently applied gelcoat or errant sanding. Clean upward the repair area again with acetone.

Mix the gelcoat with the hardener to prepare for application. Canoeing Magazine

4. Mix the Gelcoat
After you have colour-matched the amount of gelcoat needed for the repair, add catalyst (aka hardener). Different gelcoat resins crave different catalysts, so brand sure you are using the proper formula, also every bit the right two-part ratio (due east.g., four drops of goad per teaspoon of resin). Mix the two parts thoroughly with a stir stick to ensure that the entire batch will cure at the same time.

Utilize the gelcoat to the damaged area. Boating Magazine

5. Utilize Gelcoat
Use a small wood or plastic putty knife to spread the gelcoat smoothly over the gelcoat repair. You should have about 10 to 15 minutes of working time after adding the catalyst before it starts to harden and is no longer fluid. Make full the repair slightly higher than the surrounding surface to let for sanding. If you don't plan to sand, brand information technology even with the surrounding surface. Either way, spray it with a PVA curing amanuensis.

Sand and smooth the surface area with sand paper. So apply boat wax. Boating Magazine

half-dozen. Sand It Out
Skin off the PVA. Wet-sand the cured gelcoat with 320-grit wet/dry newspaper on a soft sanding block. Confining work to the firsthand repair area, continue wet-sanding with 600-grit paper until nearly even with surrounding gelcoat. Finish wet-sanding with one,000-grit paper; then buff out with rubbing compound followed by a coat of wax. If not sanding, just skin off the PVA and apply wax.

Source: https://www.boatingmag.com/how-to-repair-damaged-gelcoat/

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