Gelcoat chip repair

[hunkydory]

Has anyone used the gelcoat repair kits from West Marine? Or any other systems that work well?? We have a few chips to repair on our H23.5.

 

[Roy10289]

used the West marine repair kit for a chip on the transom made by the bow fitting of my dinghy. The chip was the size of a dime and about 1/4 " deep. The job is not that great,however I don't know if it is my poor technique or the repair materials. I think a mthicker putty-like material that would not run on a somewhat vertical surface would be a better choice in my situation. It's also very hard to match the color even in my case with a white hull.

 

[Tom Spohn]

If the chip is real deep you can fill it with Marine Tex or some other body putty type material. Then finish it off by mixing the color you need right in the plastic container the kit comes in. Place the container with your mixed color on the area to be fixed and you can see pretty well whether you have a match. My first patches were visible as I tended to mix the color too dark. My last patches are completely invisible. As in everything else practice helps!