Gelcoat Repairs

[shemandr]

OK - so does anyone have comments on repairing Gel Coat. On my H356 the deck drain areas aft tend to hold water and contaminants in the water and hence the gel coat is eroded. Its past compounding but possibly not sanding. I was wondering if I'd be better off adding new gel coat. A friend who spays paint on advised to skip a spay application and use the paint on - but cautioned I would never get a good match. All I can think is that I've never seen one these smear on jobs end up looking anything but bad. (If someone did it well I wouldn't see it) Before I even consider taking sand paper to my deck is there anyone who has accomplished a good repair with amature applied products?

 

[sailormanbigd]

yes, done it. Quite easy actually. Sand area smooth, vacuum well, wipe with clean acetone wrag, more than one if area is larger than 1 sq ft. Always use clean area of wrag. Then apply gelcoat with some sanding aid in it wit a foam brush. You can build it up as much as you like, aleways sanding and wiping with acetone. The trick is to match the old gelcoat. Might try hunter to see if they got a color code or even repair gel available. You can have it look great when done-certainly better than worn thru gelcoat.

 

[Ron20324]

Clean the area with acetone BEFORE doing any sanding. Otherwise, you work grease/oil/whatever into the surface as you sand.

 

[sailingdog]

Don't use acetone, as it isn't the most effective de-waxing/de-greasing agent. Use Interlux Fiberglass Prep Wash 202 before you sand.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Don't use acetone, as it isn't the most effective de-waxing/de-greasing agent. Use Interlux Fiberglass Prep Wash 202 before you sand.

A quick check of the MSDS indicates this product is essentially naphtha.