Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board

Re: Major Gelcoat Cracking *LINK*

Posted By: Chiles
Date: Thursday, 4 November 2004, at 10:33 a.m.

In Response To: Major Gelcoat Cracking (Jim Kilbane)

Jim,
I was told that my cracks were from areas that the gel-coat was applied too thick. The best place I can point you is Capt. Patricks write up on re-gelcoating your boat.

If you grind down the areas like I did with a right angle die grinder and 40 grit 2" disk, you can use the information in this article to help you complete it.

In addition to this article, some things that worked for me were:
1. I used the disposable prevail guns but had to remove the screen on the bottom of the pickup tube and thinned the gel coat by 10% with MEK.

Butler Marine sold me two quarts of gel coat that matched my Bert perfectly. This is a huge help, but it also helped that I had purchased the swim platform from them and then new they had the correct color for my repairs.

I mixed all my gel coat with surfacing wax. Bad idea, I wish I would have only done the last coat with surfacing wax. If I had to build up and area that required multiple coats, I had to let each coat cure and sand before applying the next. What a time consuming pain.

I used soft scrub to remove the wax prior to sanding. Worked well for me.

I think it was RussP that said "It's just plastic. You can mess it up and fixt it as many times as you want." After you get the hang of it (which I am still doing) it's kind of fun.

I'm no expert, but Captain Patricks write up allowed me to do great looking repairs. My helm had almost 25 years of holes and cracks from different electronics and spider cracks. It now looks new.

Best of luck,

Chiles

Captian Patricks gel coat tips

Messages In This Thread

Major Gelcoat Cracking
Jim Kilbane -- Wednesday, 3 November 2004, at 10:42 p.m.

Re: Major Gelcoat Cracking *LINK*
Chiles -- Thursday, 4 November 2004, at 10:33 a.m.