Gel Coat repair

I've got a few gel coat repairs from the PO letting the boat bang on a dock overnite after a drunken booze cruise.


I have a source for the gelcoat from a history search but have never worked with the stuff. Does anyone have a step by step process for these small repairs they could share.

Much appreciated

Fishy, I finally got a chance to read those articles, very helpful. thanks

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

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).

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.

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.

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.

You da man

Nice ride by the way...

Hope to get some pics of mine on here soon.

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.

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.

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,

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.

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

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.

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.