Gelcoat Repair Advice

Update:

I got the little jar of the Spectrum Color patch paste product. I like the stuff a lot, but that little 2 oz jar did about 1/50th of what I needed it to do. Ha! But I am very satisfied with the color match so I am going to order a quart of the regular gel coat from Spectrum. Hopefully that will repair all the dings to my satisfaction.

I also have decided that I really like working with gel coat. It is almost a fool-proof product (which helps with me). I have decided to remove all my decals and sand/buff out the entire boat to a level where I am either pleased with how it looks, or decide to put out the dough and spray the entire thing. It is almost magical how a little water, sandpaper and elbow grease make the scratches disappear. I actually grin from ear to ear watching my boat slowly restored to a beautiful shine.

I found a local auto parts store (Carquest) that carries almost everything I needed. They even had one of those magical eraser wheels that make the decals disappear.

The blue and grey areas are, to be honest, just OK. There are a couple of spots with deeper gouges, but most of it looks like scratches. If I remove all the snaps I'll have holes to fill however. I'm going to see how good I can get it looking by repairing the white areas, removing all the decals and giving the entire thing a wet-sand, buff and was. I have everything I need to fix that fiberglass issue now. If the temperatures here EVER get above 70 degrees here I can finally dive into that issue.

What would I have to prime the boat with? I'd need to buy a compressor and airless equipment too... Oh the fun.

I hear ya. We will see how the Spectrum Color stuff I get next week looks. I'll post some pictures. I was warned by the woman at Spectrum that 1993 boats had issues with "slight color shifting". Just my luck. :)

Anybody ever had Spectrum make a gallon of 1993 Electric Blue (2310) or Charcoal (2322)? I'd pay for a jar of the stuff from you. I won't need a gallon of each, and it will be a pretty penny to get two custom-made gallons.

The evercoat paste was easy to use and you do not have to add the wax to the final coat to harden it. That is what I used on all of my topside dings before putting the rubrail back on. I cannot see using any filler with dings that small. You will be surprised how far a 4oz tube will go. I just color matched the entire tube and put it in a small tupperware. Then just add the hardener to small batches as you go. The stuff in the tupperware will last a long time if you store it properly.

Seb next time you get the feeling you want to buff the boat go ahead and repair all the dings. It is not too bad. I wetsanded and buffed the the entire topside while I was at it so the finish is even. Nobody can see the repairs till I point them out.

Good link to cheezy video, but that definitely helped! The Tap Plastics web site had the second part of this video and had a nifty little short about fiberglass repair too. I might try some of the patch paste as well as some regular stuff and see which I like better.

That is not a big enough job to warrant trying to spray it. Gelcoat is an easy to use workable medium. Build it up, sand it down. The hardest part is getting the bubbles out of it. Watch some vids and you will see. Its pretty easy stuff.

So, how do I attack this? Spectrum Color has a gel coat patch paste repair product. The product is color matched and apparently has the consistency of Vaseline. You spread it on, fill the holes and then sand and buff it down. Has anybody used this product before?

Or it is better to get some sort of filler and then spray gel coat?

Any advice or opinions are appreciated.

Kevin