Need Help choosing a Fiberglass/gel coat repair kit for boat

Panfishangler1

So the gheenoe took some damage during last week's storms out on the river. I was looking to see if anyone had any recommendations on what to purchase so I can start repairing this damage. Thank you.

zerepener

With no scale, it's hard to say. There really isn't a "kit" for this. If you want it to look perfect, take it to somebody. If you are handy, an angle grinder with a flap wheel is where you start. You need to grind out all of the delaminated and cracked glass. Try to leave something as a backing for the repair. If you have no access to the back side, you will have to give yourself some kind of support for the layup like foam (not styrofoam unless you use epoxy). Lay up a repair. You can use all kinds of resins and drive yourself crazy trying to choose. Polyester or vinylester will be fine. Epoxy is better. Grind, sand, fill, repeat until it's to your satisfaction. Then paint or gel to match as best you can. If you just lay a patch over what's there, it will be ugly and not bond well. There are lots of videos out there on all of the basics. You could get one of the "kits" from wherever, but I prefer getting fresh resins from one of the local sellers and I would use matte as opposed to cloth. The kits are usually cloth only.

On the other hand, you could just Marine Tex it, sand and paint (or not). It's ugly, may or may not hold well, but you aren't going to sink if it fails. I've done that type of down and dirty repair to jetski bottoms.

There are obviously other things like acetone wipedowns and such, but you could get a better rundown from any of the fiberglass repair tutorials than I could give here.


Good Luck,

Rene

Panfishangler1

Thank you Rene. Awesome Write up!

Art Vandelay

Fiberglass Florida off Viera Blvd can point you in the right direction. You'll need some gelcoat, mekp, wax solution, and some sandpaper.

Sand around the damaged area, apply a few layers of unwaxed gelcoat and then add some wax solution for the final coat. That will allow for a hard, sandable finish. Then start sanding it down smooth.. maybe 60grit,100grit,180grit, 220grit, 320 grit and so on depending how nice of a finish you are looking for.

seanfish

Zerepener is right on. That one SHOULD be ground down and probably a 2 layers of 1.5oz CSM (chopped mat) will get you back in business. Followed by sand, fairing putty, sand, gelcoat.

The quick and dirty method is sand until good glass add some cabosil to gelcoat to make it into a thick peanut butter, and fill probably 2x. The downside to this method is from these pics, there is no way to determine the structural integrity of the hull underneath what "still looks good".

I just went through this on my boat, was taking in water from unknown area, until I cut the floor open and dropped it at the ramp, I had no the extent of it. Pinhole entry of water turned into a 3ft x 4inch repair after grinding to find good glass.

strangebrewski

Was the damage from running into something or stress from the inside of the boat? If it was just from a mild collision with some pilings it does not look like bad damage, just a little Gel coat breaking free. If you are a handy DIY, grind it down to find some good glass and patch it up! Give http://www.gheenoe.net/ a call. They are right over here in Titusville and they take great pride in their boats. You can get resin from them and possibly even the matching gel coat.

Panfishangler1

It is only minor damage from rubbing up against a dock during a storm. the damage is no more than 3- 4inches long and on the outside, port side of the boat...

strangebrewski

Here is a basic video showing steps they take to doing this type of repair. Just a little grinding, filling and gelcoat. Its a great skill to learn (boats always get damaged). To get a matching Gelcoat definitely give Gheenoe a call. If you are not wanting to do it yourself the guys over at Gheenoe may be willing to work with you to get it repaired. But as for usual labor it will cost $$$$.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz5WCfipaNw