How To Repair Boat Fiberglass

Fix the scratches in your boat'southward gelcoat that sometimes occur at the docks. Boating Magazine

Own a fiberglass boat long enough, and you lot'll end up with a scratch, nick or gouge in the finish. Information technology might be from a muffed landing, a dropped pair of line-fishing pliers or but a hole drilled in the incorrect place. You can commonly fix gelcoat repairs yourself. Information technology takes a fleck of patience, simply do it right and few will notice.

Complications occur when at that place's harm on a textured surface similar diamond nonskid or on a multitone finish. For these, call in a pro. Also, deep gouges may demand structural fiberglass work or filler earlier you repair the gelcoat. On horizontal surfaces, liquid gelcoat works, but for vertical surfaces, a paste is easier to employ. The first step is identifying the finish on your boat.

Getting Started
Stop Time: 1-two hrs
Skill Level: three/five

Tools and Supplies
*Masking tape
*Hand-held grinder and bits
*Countersink fleck and drill motor
*Gelcoat resin and catalyst
*Coloring agents
*Acetone
*Mixing cups
*Stir sticks
*Latex gloves
*Dust mask
*Cleanup rags
*Putty pocketknife
*Wet/dry sandpaper (320-, 600- and 1,000 dust)
*PVA curing agent
*Rubbing compound
*Gunkhole wax

You'll need to fill up deep gouges with resin and filler before applying terminate. Epoxy resin and fillers adhere better than polyester products but toll more and require several extra steps prior to applying the stop color of either gelcoat or boat pigment. If you choose paint, topside alkyd enamels, polyurethanes and others are available from Interlux and Pettit.

How to Repair Gelcoat

Gelcoat Repair

Lucifer the color of the gelcoat. Boating Mag

ane. Match the Color
For current boats, your dealer might be able to supply matching gelcoat. Simply due to weathering on your boat, it may not lucifer. In that location are kits from companies such every bit Evercoat with pigments to add to the resin for a match. If yous have a sample, you can lucifer a gallon of gelcoat from Rayplex Composites (fibreglass.com).

Gelcoat Repair

Clean up the edges where the gelcoat was damaged. Boating Magazine

two. Clean Up Edges
Use a rotary grinder to smooth the edges to a 45-degree bevel and eliminate whatever loose material. If repairing a drilled pigsty, the surface might accept go elevated from the up pressure of an old fastener. Use a countersink chip or rotary file and a drill motor to carefully grind abroad the swollen perimeter. Scrape away any old sealant and clean upwardly with acetone.

Gelcoat Repair

Tape off the area around the damaged gelcoat. Canoeing Mag

3. Tape It Off
Carefully mask effectually the edges of the fiberglass boat repair area with two-inch-wide 3M ScotchBlue Multi-Surface Painter's Tape No. 2090. Give yourself a 16th of an inch of unmasked margin around the scratch, gouge or hole. Likewise, mask off whatsoever adjacent areas or items to protect them from inadvertently applied gelcoat or errant sanding. Clean up the repair area once more with acetone.

Mix the gelcoat with the hardener to prepare for application. Boating Magazine

four. Mix the Gelcoat
After you have color-matched the corporeality of gelcoat needed for the repair, add catalyst (aka hardener). Unlike gelcoat resins require different catalysts, so make certain you are using the proper formula, likewise every bit the right two-part ratio (e.m., iv drops of goad per teaspoon of resin). Mix the 2 parts thoroughly with a stir stick to ensure that the unabridged batch will cure at the same time.

Utilize the gelcoat to the damaged surface area. Canoeing Magazine

5. Utilize Gelcoat
Utilise a small wood or plastic putty knife to spread the gelcoat smoothly over the gelcoat repair. You lot should have about ten to fifteen minutes of working fourth dimension subsequently calculation the catalyst before information technology starts to harden and is no longer fluid. Fill the repair slightly higher than the surrounding surface to allow for sanding. If you don't plan to sand, make information technology even with the surrounding surface. Either way, spray it with a PVA curing amanuensis.

Sand and shine the surface area with sand paper. And then use boat wax. Boating Mag

half-dozen. Sand It Out
Peel off the PVA. Wet-sand the cured gelcoat with 320-dust moisture/dry newspaper on a soft sanding block. Confining work to the immediate repair area, continue wet-sanding with 600-grit paper until about even with surrounding gelcoat. Stop wet-sanding with one,000-dust paper; then buff out with rubbing chemical compound followed by a glaze of wax. If not sanding, just skin off the PVA and apply wax.