Gelcoat repair

[Bigsnaff]

Hello all - just picked up a scratch and dent Lucas Oil from Tower. Unfortunately the 'minor' hull damage consists of cracked gelcoat on the bottom of one of the sponsons all the way down to the fiberglass with a chip with about 1/4" of exposed 'glass. The 'glass itself is solid, but I need to repair the gelcoat. There are some spider cracks too. So, the questions are: what products would you recommend to do the repair? Also, I'm hoping for a like-new finish when I'm done - do you recommend I route out all the cracks and fill with gelcoat? Not too extreme? Any other hints/tips? Btw, if this has been addressed elsewhere, my apologies, please just point me in the right direction :)

Thank you!

[lt130th]

You might send tiqueman a PM. From what I hear the guy is a pro at hull repair.

[Bigsnaff]

Thanks for the tip - I can't believe no one else is chiming in here. I can't be the only one who has dealt with this! I might just try to blueprint the sponsons once I'm messing with them anyway.

[tlandauer]

Thanks for the tip - I can't believe no one else is chiming in here. I can't be the only one who has dealt with this! I might just try to blueprint the sponsons once I'm messing with them anyway.

Very few people had posted anything with gel coat repair, I think most people repair with epoxy and repaint the hull. May be that is the rrason why nobody had responded until now.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk 2

[Bigsnaff]

Ah ha! Well, its a white hull anyway, so I was just thinking about using marine-tex. I saw a blueprinting tutorial that just used epoxy and left it unpainted, so that might be the way I go. Meh.

[lt130th]

...I think most people repair with epoxy and repaint the hull.

That's exactly what I'm about to try with some cracked gelcoat on an Impulse 31 hull. Not sure if West Systems G-flex would be better than something like Marine-Tex...? I figured I would open up the cracks a bit with a Dremel to get full penetration with the epoxy and max bonding surface.

[Bigsnaff]

Yeah, every tutorial I've seen says open up the cracks with a Dremel. Makes me crazy to think I gotta make it so much worse before I make it better, but I guess that's the way to do it right.

[tlandauer]

Wait a minute!
Depends on what kind of crack/damage!
I have used CA very successfully on a number of repairs. Hairline cracks that are not in a structural stress prone area can be done the following way: I get rid off the loose/chipped gelcoat and run CA along the hairline crack, massage the hull so the two halves are aligned and the CA can be seen running into the crack. You need to use medium speed cure CA though. It is always a good idea to back up the crack on the inside with FG cloth, provided you can get to that spot with your hands.
Bigger cracks yes, epoxy is better, I have used West Systems epoxy and just carefully pour it into the crack, better yet, go to a wood shop and get special epoxy /glue applicator if you want to be precise about it. Using a dremel to open up is serious business, but it is the last resort for me.

[Ken_NJ]

For what it's worth.
I have this RTR that met up with a rock on the shoreline. You can see the damage and small cracks. Not sure if this is gel-coat or not. A new hull from Horizon was $179 I think, so I set about with body repair. I clamped it together and used G/Flex with cloth on the inside to secure the broken seams, at least where I could. I then used Evercoat glazing putty for the sponson tip repair. Had to keep building it up after sanding. Once the sponson tip was decent, added more G/flex and cloth near the tip on the inside for reinforcement. Still a few spider cracks on the bottom, but they don't bother me. I used Bright White Krylon to repaint and Testor's Blue Metalic for the stripe. Both came out very close matches.

Evercoat: http://www.amazon.com/Fibreglass-Eve...eurosoft+putty
G/flex: http://www.amazon.com/NRS-flex-Epoxy...eywords=G+flex

[Ken_NJ]

Two more pics. Never did get a replacement decal.

On another boat project I called around trying to find gel-coat repair kit to match the existing white gel-coat. Everyone said your better off repair the damage and paint it. To hard to match the same color gel-coat. So painting it is what's going to happen. Will probably look better painted anyway.

[Bigsnaff]

Wow, that was a pretty spiffy repair for the damage. Mine's no where near that. Pretty good info on what you used and thanks for the links!

[runzwithsizorz]

Wait a minute!
Depends on what kind of crack/damage!
I have used CA very successfully on a number of repairs. Hairline cracks that are not in a structural stress prone area can be done the following way: I get rid off the loose/chipped gelcoat and run CA along the hairline crack, massage the hull so the two halves are aligned and the CA can be seen running into the crack. You need to use medium speed cure CA though. It is always a good idea to back up the crack on the inside with FG cloth, provided you can get to that spot with your hands.
Bigger cracks yes, epoxy is better, I have used West Systems epoxy and just carefully pour it into the crack, better yet, go to a wood shop and get special epoxy /glue applicator if you want to be precise about it. Using a dremel to open up is serious business, but it is the last resort for me.

Scroll to the bottom of the page. http://kintecracing.com/Building_Supplies.html

[klbo]

White gelcoat repair

image.jpg you can pick this up at your local Home Depot