Gel coat/hull repair tips

[Franced123]

Hoping I can repair this on my own. Anyone ever try to do these repairs or should I have a professional do it?

 

[FLBulldogger]

Have you tried to push in under the gelcoat to see if the glass has been damaged? If its soft underneath I would suggest a pro do the repair. Unless of course you are comfortable with doing fiberglass and then gelcoat repairs. If its just gelcoat it maybe worth a shot.... white is a bit easier to work with than a darker color in trying to match. You can call spectrumcolor.com or try their color match on the website. They do a great job with matching the gelcoat. Good luck

 

[Franced123]

@FLBulldogger, it seemed solid underneath. This was caused by one of my bone head friends cranking on the winch when I couldn't see what he was doing until to late. The trailer wasnt in water far enough and the side if keel roller made the hole. I'm sick about it but hoping to fix it. I'll try spectrum. If the glass is damaged underneath do they usually repair with epoxy resin or have to put pieces of fiberglass in there for support?

 

[Franced123]

Have you tried to push in under the gelcoat to see if the glass has been damaged? If its soft underneath I would suggest a pro do the repair. Unless of course you are comfortable with doing fiberglass and then gelcoat repairs. If its just gelcoat it maybe worth a shot.... white is a bit easier to work with than a darker color in trying to match. You can call spectrumcolor.com or try their color match on the website. They do a great job with matching the gelcoat. Good luck

Ps: sweet puppy.

 

[FLBulldogger]

@Franced123 Back at you! She is my buddy loves the water but the heat is to much for her so she only gets to go out in the winter.

 

[Diablo243]

That is a deep ding to the point you are missing chunks of gelcoat. You have to clean out the other broken peices of gel, sand the edges down, fill the hole with either a marine bondo putty or mix your own with resin and glass fibers, get the hole to be about a 1/8 from the surface, then gel coat over that to finish. That is the proper way to do it, you don't want to just fill that void with gelcoat.

 

[Diablo243]

Plus you are in a tuff spot to work there being the break is on a chine and you are close to the rub rail. I would get a quote to have it done professionally, shouldn't be a big dollar repair. I used to build boats for Boston Boat Works and have done many repairs and even that one I would prob just pay to have done because it is in PIA location.

 

[Franced123]

@Diablo243 that's a great idea, I've worked with epoxy on other projects and have had success but I did get a quote for this one. 300bucks and will be done in a day. Sounds good to me!

 

[Diablo243]

@Franced123 seriously, 3 bills is the way to go!

 

[Franced123]

@Diablo243 got it fixed by a professional, glad I did because he said it will be covered under warranty because there was an air pocket under it where fiberglass wasnt completely perfect. He said he has see this happen to lots of different boats. The guguy fixed it in one day and you cant tell it was there even in least bit.

 

[Diablo243]

That’s awesome, I was going to say that looked like a large void behind it but was hard to tell for sure from the pic!