Fiberglass Deck Repair

[bawlmer]

I got some nasty gouges in my fiberglass deck from an anchor as chronicled in a previous post. As you can see in the pics these go way past the gelcoat and you can actually see the woven fibers. The complicated one is a long gash is on the top and side of the deck and is about 2 inches long. The rest are just random chunks. What is the best way to fix this? My biggest concern is rebuilding the gelcoat and making it look like it never happened. All help and wisdom is greatly appreciated.

And I hope my next adventure thread is not accompanied by a fix-it thread.

 

[tjar]

I've gotten lots of experience repairing fiberglass with my last boat. Your chips don't look that bad.
Grind/sand the edges back about two inches and flair it out. Clean everything with acetone. Put some masking tape around the edges to raise the new gelcoat slightly proud of the old surface. Mix up some gelcoat and apply it to the area with a small brush. Apply several coats if necessary until it comes up to the level of the masking tape. Seal the surface of the gelcoat with plastic wrap or fiberglass mold release. Using plastic wrap will smooth the surface more evenly and require less sanding. After everything is dry, remove the plastic/mold release and wet sand until the surfaces are even. Use polishing compound, followed with buffing compound to smooth out the surface and then apply a good coat of wax.
Trust me, it sounds a lot harder than it actually is.

 

[CloudDiver]

Believe it or not you didn't gouge any fiberglass laminate, you just need to replace the gelcoat. Go to the Spectrum Color website and you can buy Gelcoat Paste repair kits for $24/2oz jar. 2 oz goes a long way. They are color matched to your year/make of boat.
Gelcoat Paste is much easier and much more forgiving to work with than regular gelcoat. Its like putting on thickened epoxy instead of runny, drippy epoxy... You can knife it on and all you have to worry about is not having any air pockets, slightly overfill. Sand it smooth and to shape with 120, then go 220, then 320, then 400 wet, 600 wet, and then compound buff. Super easy and hard to mess up.

 

[dlochner]

Take a deep breath. These are not structural issues, only cosmetic.

When boats are built gelcoat is sprayed inside the hull and then the fiberglass is placed in the mold. What you have is places that the fiberglass did not come into full contact with the gelcoat. That left a small void between the gelcoat and fiberglass.

Why does this occur? Because the radius of the hull/deck mold is too tight to get the glass into the corners.

The cure, as others have suggested, is to open up the void a bit and fill with thickened gelcoat.

 

[bawlmer]

I would like to thank everyone for your responses. This makes me feel better. That one gouge is really nasty.

Luke. I checked the Spectrum Color website and they actually have Catalina White 95 thru 04. That is as close a match as I can hope for. I may PM you If I have any more questions if that is OK. Thanks again.

 

[dscribner]

The responses are great and spot on, but I'd pick up a copy of Don Casey's book on sailboat repair. Invaluable

 

[bawlmer]

I have a lot to look at here . The nasty repair requires forming a 90 degree angle as the deck trim was sheared off and sculpting of the gelcoat paste is required. The remaining gouges are strictly fill in work. Not quite Zen with this yet but I will be eventually.

 

[CloudDiver]

I would like to thank everyone for your responses. This makes me feel better. That one gouge is really nasty.

Luke. I checked the Spectrum Color website and they actually have Catalina White 95 thru 04. That is as close a match as I can hope for. I may PM you If I have any more questions if that is OK. Thanks again.

Feel free to PM me. The gel paste is easy to work with and I think you'll be really happy with the results.

 

[dlochner]

I have a lot to look at here . The nasty repair requires forming a 90 degree angle as the deck trim was sheared off and sculpting of the gelcoat paste is required. The remaining gouges are strictly fill in work. Not quite Zen with this yet but I will be eventually.

Work slowly and remember that sandpaper is your friend.

 

[bawlmer]

I wanted to close this post that I started last September. Apparently, it takes me a while to get things done sometimes. After a healthy dose of fear, procrastination and analysis paralysis I finally fixed the damage to may gelcoat. It was easier than I thought it was. I used both halves of the Spectrum Color patch paste. The color matched really well. If you look at the picture really close you can see the repairs. It was an amateur job but I am very happy with it. I ground out and cleaned the gash with acetone and put masking tape around the gash. I applied the patch paste in the gash up to the masking tape and used wax paper to help make the 90 degree turn at the end of the deck. The patch paste hardened up a lot quicker than I thought it would. I used the second half of the bottle for 2 smaller holes inside the anchor locker and to fill in a few small holes left in the deck repair. I started with 120 grit to bring it almost fair to the deck then used 220 then 400 then wet 600. I kept going over it lightly and slowly with the 600 until I could not tell the difference.

I would like to thank everyone who responded especially Cloud Diver for the technical support, sage advice and words of encouragement. The patch paste worked really well and I am now looking for more stuff on the boat that needs a gelcoat fix.

This forum and the fine folks on it increased my knowledge again and saved me more than a few boat bucks in the process. Thanks again!

 

[jssailem]

Really nice job Steve.

 

[Steve L22188]

Thanks for letting us know how it turned out. I wish everyone would report back when the finish line has been crossed. Looks great. This might tempt me to work on a couple of spots I have on the boat.