Gel Coat repair

Can anyone recommend a company in the Clear Lake - Kemah area of Texas for gel coal repair and paint? I admire you fellows who are skilled and take pleasure in this sort of thing but to me I might as well be mowing my yard - it's just as much fun. (But that's just me.)

I have a chunk of gel coat notched out of hull in the front edge just below the water line. The notch is about 3" long and 1/4" wide and was placed there by the PO. It's been bothering me and I have been reading up on gel coat repairs but I think I am going to avoid the pain and trailer the boat to a shop - if I can find one.

Nautique2001,

Working on these things myself is the only way I could afford it. This boat and my motorhome are my stress reliever toys and I love working on both of them. Last winter I gutted most of the motorhome and rebuilt it just for something to do in the cold boring midwest winters. I wouldn't own either of them if I had to pay for upkeep and service. I get a lot of personnal gratification when I can say to myself "I did that" and be proud of it just makes me feel good I guess.

ultrahots wrote: P.S. Do they offer Black as a gel color as well ?

The easiest (and least expensive) way to get black gel coat is to purchase neutral gel and add black dye/coloring agent.

p/allen,

try the campground again during the week, I think their still on limited hours until April. Tribal and I are staying there and are in spots 1 & 3, I know Paul is coming in an Rv too so I assume his gang will be in the same campground. Glad you're gonna make it out, looks to be a good time.

Stang,   I like how that works, you and Momma get the hotel the kids get the tent.

p/allen...my wife and I are staying at Bayveiw...we too need to get a camping spot for the kids!

p/allen,

Where abouts on the Rock do you live, that's pretty close to our little shindig in Wisconsin this summer. Hope to see you there.

Ultra, I didn't buy the boat, I saved it from destruction. The PO was a young guy that liked to have fun and knew nothing about maintaining it. From what I understand they didn't even ski, Just Partied. There was more damage done to the boat in the 9 monthes he owned it than in the 25 years before . I think "just in time" applies.

Stang,
Good to hear from ya. The boat has been Naked and ready for paint for about two weeks. A buddy of mine is going to paint it at his shop when he can slip it in. Hopefully that will be this week, I'm starting to get a little impatient but I hate to push since it's a charity job.

Alan,The boat looks awesome.Yes the chunks are from Beer Peir as i call them.Last time i saw your boat it had a VERY full cocktail cooler on it last foruth of July.It was almost comical to watch him try to go thru the "No Wake Zone" near my house.I cannot wait to see it in Green Lake and i will be doing a lot of deck / side repairs as soon as it is warm enough.

P.S. Do they offer Black as a gel color as well ?

p/allen,

I followed davidf instructions to the letter and am very happy with the results. I fixed all the chips and any stratches that were too deep to sand out and the boat looks great. As for the actual process it just takes some time and patience but is not that hard.

Now for the real story, There are a few spots on the boat that I am going to redo because I am not happy with the color match that I came up with. My solutions is to send a sample piece of my gelcoat to Mini craft and for $60 they will scan the chip and custom mix some gel to match. Most of the repairs are in spots that are not that obvious but a few are going to be noticed and I will redo them later.

here's a photo of one but it may be hard to see because the flash was washing out the photo,


This is the same spot on the boat from my first post, if not for the color match you could not tell it was repaired.

Ps. I ended up wetsanding the entire boat up to 1500 and then buffed it. If you had seen this boat before I started you would not beleive it was the same one. That too is labor intensive but very worth it.

Thanks Fishy,


I've seen that kit and that is my second option if the kit MWCC sent me doesn't match good enough. The kit from MWCC only cost $15 so I thought I'd try that one first. I hope to do a test tommorrow so we'll find out shortly.

You da man

Nice ride by the way...

Hope to get some pics of mine on here soon.

Hey 81,
You think you can post some pics of the finished repair and tell me the degree of difficulty? I have one or two dings about that size I need to fix and I'm looking for the best way to go about it.

No problem repairing indicated damage with gel coat alone. Follow these steps for great results:

1. Use Acetone to thouroughly clean the areas to be repaired.
2. Use course sand paper and thouroughly roughen up the area to be repaired. Get in deep with the sand paper.
3. Clean again with Acetone.
4. Using a small brush or even a popsicle stick, work the new gel coat into the divit or over the sanded/scratched areas. Make sure the new gel coat is proud of the original surface.
5. Using clear packaging tape, cover the new gel coat to allow it to cure to the surface as well as level out the gel coat.
6. After the gel coat has cured over night, remove the tape and thouroughly wipe the repair down with Acetone to remove any uncured surface gel coat. The Acetone will in NO way affect fully cured gel coat.
7. Spray a Acetone dampened rag with black spray paint and wipe the repaired area until it is slightly black in color. This is called a tracer.
8. Starting with 120 or 220 sand paper, carefully sand the repair until the black tracer disappears. Be careful not to go deeper than original surface. If you have low spots repeat the entire process. If you have a very small black dot, forget about it and move on, but do not try to sand the black dot out.
9. Re-apply the tracer coat and switch to 220 or 320 sand paper. Sand a larger area and stop when tracer is gone.
10. Re-apply tracer and switch to 400 paper. Sand a larger area and stop when tracer is gone.
11. Switch to 600 paper and sand a larger area.
12. Switch to 800/900 paper and sand a larger area.
13. Compound and buff out.

Notes: You MUST use a rigid sanding block until you get to 600 grit paper. Rubber sanding blocks are NOT to be used. If you end up with a small black dot or two, simply sand out by hand or ignore and remove the black with Acetone. You will not notice the spot in the final product. For these types of repairs, thicker gel coat is desirable, so no need to thin with Styrene. Under no circumstances should gel coat be thinned with Acetone. Gel coat is catalyzed with 2% MEKP. Use more to accelerate the cure. Too little catalyst is problematic. If the gelcoat does not cure properly, just wipe off with Acetone and try again. If you must apply more gel coat over the new gel coat, then make sure you sand with at least 120 grit paper to provide adequate tooth for proper adhesion.

Let me know if you have more questions.

wrollema,

The gelcoat MWCC sent me is already thickened. I'm going to try a smaller repair first and see how it goes. To make sure I follow you, I would use the filler you suggested to fill the void but then still finish the repair with the gelcoat,right?
Thanks.

The Styrene they are talking about is in liquid form, and available at a fiberglass supply store. It is used to both clean and thin (in small amounts) the resin. If the gelcoat comes "waxed", meaning a liquid wax is in the resin, no wax paper is needed. The wax comes to the surface during curing and does the same thing (seals off the air).

Stang,
I have MWCC sending me a small bottle of gelcoat that they say should match my boat fairly well. Thanks for the wax paper tip. I'm trying to get the boat into my warehouse next week so I can get it warmed up, I've got to do the carpeting and then I'll give the gel repairs a try.

What is Styrene? The articles say to rub the repair area with styrene before applying the new gelcoat to reactivate the old gel and get a chemical bond as opposed to a purely mechanical bond. Is this a liquid and where can I get it? AutoBody Repair shop maybe?

Thanks