How To Repair Fiberglass Boat

Gear up the scratches in your boat'south gelcoat that sometimes occur at the docks. Canoeing Mag

Own a fiberglass boat long enough, and you'll cease up with a scratch, nick or gouge in the finish. Information technology might be from a muffed landing, a dropped pair of fishing pliers or but a hole drilled in the incorrect place. Yous can commonly gear up gelcoat repairs yourself. Information technology takes a bit of patience, merely do information technology correct and few will notice.

Complications occur when there'south damage on a textured surface like diamond nonskid or on a multitone finish. For these, call in a pro. Likewise, deep gouges may demand structural fiberglass work or filler before yous repair the gelcoat. On horizontal surfaces, liquid gelcoat works, simply for vertical surfaces, a paste is easier to apply. The first step is identifying the finish on your boat.

Getting Started
Cease Time: 1-2 hrs
Skill Level: 3/five

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 sandpaper (320-, 600- and 1,000 grit)
*PVA curing agent
*Rubbing compound
*Boat wax

Yous'll need to make full deep gouges with resin and filler before applying terminate. Epoxy resin and fillers adhere better than polyester products only cost more and require several extra steps prior to applying the finish color of either gelcoat or boat paint. If you choose paint, 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. Lucifer the Color
For current boats, your dealer might be able to supply matching gelcoat. Just due to weathering on your boat, it may not lucifer. In that location are kits from companies such as Evercoat with pigments to add to the resin for a match. If you have 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. Boating Magazine

ii. Make clean Upwards Edges
Apply a rotary grinder to smoothen the edges to a 45-degree bevel and eliminate any loose material. If repairing a drilled pigsty, the surface might have become elevated from the upward pressure of an old fastener. Apply a countersink scrap or rotary file and a drill motor to carefully grind away the swollen perimeter. Scrape away whatsoever old sealant and make clean up with acetone.

Gelcoat Repair

Tape off the area effectually the damaged gelcoat. Canoeing Mag

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

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

iv. Mix the Gelcoat
Afterwards you have color-matched the amount of gelcoat needed for the repair, add catalyst (aka hardener). Different gelcoat resins require different catalysts, so brand sure you are using the proper formula, as well as the right ii-function ratio (e.g., iv 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.

Apply the gelcoat to the damaged expanse. Boating Mag

5. Utilize Gelcoat
Use a small wood or plastic putty pocketknife to spread the gelcoat smoothly over the gelcoat repair. You should have about ten to 15 minutes of working time afterwards adding the goad before it starts to harden and is no longer fluid. Make full the repair slightly higher than the surrounding surface to permit for sanding. If y'all don't plan to sand, go far fifty-fifty with the surrounding surface. Either way, spray information technology with a PVA curing amanuensis.

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

half-dozen. Sand Information technology Out
Peel off the PVA. Wet-sand the cured gelcoat with 320-grit wet/dry paper on a soft sanding block. Circumscribed piece of work to the immediate repair area, continue wet-sanding with 600-grit paper until most even with surrounding gelcoat. Finish wet-sanding with 1,000-grit paper; then buff out with rubbing chemical compound followed by a coat of wax. If not sanding, just peel off the PVA and apply wax.

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

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