#Repair cracks in gelcoat how to#
#Repair cracks in gelcoat crack#

Keep in mind that if you have light damage, such as chalking or fading, you can easily use a bottle of Color Restorer without going through these steps. ItвЂ™s essentially the boatвЂ™s вЂњskin.вЂќ If you donвЂ™t take care of it, it will affect the entire appearance and even performance of your boat. Keep in mind that the gelcoat is the first line of defense between your boat and the marine environment. It may not seem like it now, but the best way to ensure a quality appearance for your boat is to repair gelcoat chips as soon as possible. Left unchecked, these issues can even spread to surrounding areas. If the fiberglass gelcoat is damaged, dinged or chipped, itвЂ™s going to throw off the entire smooth exterior. The quality of your boatвЂ™s appearance is largely the result of its fiberglass.

#Repair cracks in gelcoat how to#

HereвЂ™s a quick guide to teach you how to repair gelcoat chips. The good news is that it doesnвЂ™t have to be difficult. To do that, youвЂ™ll need a great routine for cleaning and waxing your boat, and you need to understand what to do if some of your gelcoat chips off. That means youвЂ™re going to need to take care of it. I would be more worried about the structural problems causing the cracks than the cracks themselves.Want your boat to look new? Most of that вЂњlike-newвЂќ look depends on the gelcoat. In the long term this moisture could find its way between the gelcote and glass creating blisters. In the meantime, the cracks will allow moisture to enter into them. If you decide later to have the gelcote redone you should take care of the structural problems first. Let me just add that since it is an older boat there may be underlying structural problems causing these cracks. If you had a good match in color, ground all the way to the glass, and sanded well then it may just work. You may need to cover the area with plastic wrap and tape it down to assist the cure. Now, tape around your grooves leaving about 1' on either side. Once cured, use the green pad and clean water to aggressively clean the grooves you created and epoxied. Next, use a heat gun and brush in some epoxy resin into the gouges. Then clean the area with water and a green pad. You must remove the gelcote all the way to the fiberglass. Use a precision grinding tool like a dremel and carefully trace along the length of the crack. If you can match the gelcote color there is a 'field expedient repair' that may just work. I may have my membership to the site revoked for this one, but here goes. Plenty of work but if you can color match your gelcote and that is the only area to be repaired it is not bad. Use cheap spray paint to cover the repair and surrounding ara. Leave the last coat a little proud (thicker) than the origional area. Tape off the area and spray or brush on your new gelcote. Use a little Bondo filler to fill the scratches. Once that is cured then scrub with 3M pad and cold water. Apply epoxy resin and use a heat gun to apply heat directly to the area. If you can color match the gelcote then you can grind the damaged area to the glass with about a 6' wide perimeter for blending the new glass.

#Repair cracks in gelcoat crack#

Now these dont go all the way through every layer of glass but if they are not addressed then any repairs to the gelcote will just crack again in time. It has been my experience that if there are cracks in the gelcote there are corresponding cracks in the glass on the boat. As 'doc mentioned, the 'correct repair is to remove damage.' Got it back here, looked pretty good at first, but damned if those cracks didn't start majically reappearing week by week to this day. I asked it had cracks in the gelcoat 'no, not at all'. 'Doc, I'd like to speak with you off-line regarding same, and several stringer jobs if that's up your alley.ДЇood for thought: I bought a neat little aqua-white 66 Am Skier off Ebay a few years ago which was reportedly repainted completely-orig colors. Spider cracks also appear to develop on hulls more predominantly below the waterline along with the blisters. 'Doc or someone please tell us what causes/caused that, unless it's just exposure, but CCs build after the late 60s don't seem to have the problem as pronounced.yet. While I guess stress cracks indeed appear as spider cracks, the spider cracks in the gelcoat have appeared in the older boats in many areas not related to stress at all, like in the ENTIRE top deck. Not to contradict at all what Alan just said, but a vast number of pre-'68 or so model boats have both the crazing (good terminology b.d.)in the hull, and/or crazing and spider cracks in the decks when the stringers are fine, esp in the pre-foam boats.