Hatch repair

[kfxguy]

My buddy crashed his boat and because the hatches are quite hard to come by I decided to try and repair it. I thought I'd post about it because it turned out quite exceptional.


I didn't get a pic of how it looked broke but imagine this piece was missing mostly. I taped one side to hold the epoxy. I mixed up some epoxy and cut up some carbon cloth into the mix. Then sanded it smooth.





There was cracks all over like this

[kfxguy]

At this point I almost threw it in the garbage because it had them all over. Figured may be worth a shot so I forged ahead. I dremeled the cracks and got rid of the gel coat (I HATE gel coat) so it would have some glass to bite into.








Then filled and sanded. A trick is to wave a flame over the epoxy quickly as it gets rid of air bubbles. That cuts your pin hole fixing down greatly.

[kfxguy]

Here's the underside once the repairs were done.

It will get a layer or two of carbon also




Primed the front part




Then I found out the original painter had safer the primer too slick so the base coat didn't stick. I literally peeled it all off like a vinyl wrap lol

[kfxguy]

It peeling like that actually made the job cleaner and easier for me. A lot less sand. Have I ever mentioned I hate sanding? lol


Here it is primed ready for base coat





And here it is with base coat. That's house of kolor tangelo pearl

[kfxguy]

I finished it up last night. I cleared it with upol spray can clear. Pics do no justice. This thing looks slick, especially for a non painter like myself. I've been learning. Btw, it had some trash in the base. I read online tha you can't sand the base. Big debate kind of like what's the best lipo battery lol. Well truth be told, I used some 600 grit and knocked the trash off. Wiped it down and cleared it. The clear probably stuck even better and there are no sand marks in it like they were proclaiming on other sites.

[shua]

Awesome work as always. Thanks for the step by step instruction!

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[TonyRomano]

What is gell coat?


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[martin]

What is gell coat?


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Gell coat is the first layer applied in a mould ( outer shiny finish on a glass fiber or carbon hull ) followed by layers of glass cloth & resin.

[TonyRomano]

Thanks


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[primetime90]

Im able to learn some fact that works here

Great