Do you feel that gelpaste (gelcoat with carbosil filler) is a good material for repairing minor cracks and defects after they have ben "dremeled" out adaquately? Thanks
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A.L. ("Jim") Willis Pres of ISLAND GIRL PROD.
Saw a nice repair last week
Oversaw an Island Girl Detailing job last week atin the yard at Ala Wai Marine. This was a race boat that had seen hard local use and there were some gouges that went down to the fiberglass underneath. The yard guy did a great repair. Such that afterwards and after we had finished the SEA-GLOW/sealant/wax treatment we could not see the repair. What he did was to locally sand back the surface then use a polyester-based filler (a type of marine bondo). What surprised me that he made no attempt at color matching at this stage. He then sanded these repairs smooth and then sprayed on gelcoat that was color-matched (white with a slight amount of yellow added)and this ws applied by disposable sprayer to add thickness to where the original sanding had been done. He said that a wax-based surface release was added to the top. By the time we got to finish this area, he had compounded out the area. WHen hwe had finished it with SEA-GLOW, eax etc. the area was impossible to discern. I think that using gelcoat itself with some body-improving material (usually like a talc) would have been preferable to the bondo-type stuff so that the color is similar all the way down (as you suggest). Sorry for the delay in replying but I really did not know what to say before. This reply also pertains to previous item. Thanks Jim WIllis
Oversaw an Island Girl Detailing job last week atin the yard at Ala Wai Marine. This was a race boat that had seen hard local use and there were some gouges that went down to the fiberglass underneath. The yard guy did a great repair. Such that afterwards and after we had finished the SEA-GLOW/sealant/wax treatment we could not see the repair. What he did was to locally sand back the surface then use a polyester-based filler (a type of marine bondo). What surprised me that he made no attempt at color matching at this stage. He then sanded these repairs smooth and then sprayed on gelcoat that was color-matched (white with a slight amount of yellow added)and this ws applied by disposable sprayer to add thickness to where the original sanding had been done. He said that a wax-based surface release was added to the top. By the time we got to finish this area, he had compounded out the area. WHen hwe had finished it with SEA-GLOW, eax etc. the area was impossible to discern. I think that using gelcoat itself with some body-improving material (usually like a talc) would have been preferable to the bondo-type stuff so that the color is similar all the way down (as you suggest). Sorry for the delay in replying but I really did not know what to say before. This reply also pertains to previous item. Thanks Jim WIllis
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Tim Forney
Cruising World Article
George, There is an excellent article on performing a gell-coat repair, step by step, in Cruising World magazine. I believe it's the April issue, I'm not sure( one the the spring 2000 "fitting out" issues). I have it on my boat as I'm in the process of doing some glasswork myself. ...Tim
George, There is an excellent article on performing a gell-coat repair, step by step, in Cruising World magazine. I believe it's the April issue, I'm not sure( one the the spring 2000 "fitting out" issues). I have it on my boat as I'm in the process of doing some glasswork myself. ...Tim
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A.L. ("Jim") Willis Pres of ISLAND GIRL PROD.
Would appreciate copy of article
Tim: I would really appreciate it if you could fax a copy of the cruising world article to 808 262 2831. Also I am going to FIberglass Hawaii (I thin that's their name) where the guy at Ala Wai got his materials. I not only want to bone up on this subject for the website, but I need to fix some surface cracks on my own boat. Thanks Jim W
Tim: I would really appreciate it if you could fax a copy of the cruising world article to 808 262 2831. Also I am going to FIberglass Hawaii (I thin that's their name) where the guy at Ala Wai got his materials. I not only want to bone up on this subject for the website, but I need to fix some surface cracks on my own boat. Thanks Jim W
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Bryan C.
Synopsis of article
If you don't get a copy of the article, as I recall it, the technique was basically to grind or gouge out cracks so they would be large enough for the gelcoat or epoxy to penetrate; seal with epoxy; spray on gelcoat with one of those little air guns; then finish up with 600-1000 grit wet sandpaper and polish. Gelcoat you can get from Hunter or the store work fine. I have fixed a lot of cracks, its not hard. I gouge em out, slap on some gelcoat with a paint brush, and the sand smooth finishing as indicated above, though I start with 100 grit to get the worst of the bumps out. I usually don't bother with epoxy unless its a particularly deep gouge. Works fine, it's easy. What is a pain in the ass for me is matching the gelcoat color. I've tried store bougt gel coat and gel coat I got from Hunter. Both looked like they matched at first, but after a couple days the store bought gel coat turned too grey and the Hunter gel coat looked to yellow. So while my patch jobs look find, you can notice a color differential. The CW article glossed over this issue, vaguely mentioning just matching the color by mixing appropriate pigments. If you can figure out how to make the color match, let me in on it. It may be with a sprayer you can feather the edge so the color blends in better.... Good luck
If you don't get a copy of the article, as I recall it, the technique was basically to grind or gouge out cracks so they would be large enough for the gelcoat or epoxy to penetrate; seal with epoxy; spray on gelcoat with one of those little air guns; then finish up with 600-1000 grit wet sandpaper and polish. Gelcoat you can get from Hunter or the store work fine. I have fixed a lot of cracks, its not hard. I gouge em out, slap on some gelcoat with a paint brush, and the sand smooth finishing as indicated above, though I start with 100 grit to get the worst of the bumps out. I usually don't bother with epoxy unless its a particularly deep gouge. Works fine, it's easy. What is a pain in the ass for me is matching the gelcoat color. I've tried store bougt gel coat and gel coat I got from Hunter. Both looked like they matched at first, but after a couple days the store bought gel coat turned too grey and the Hunter gel coat looked to yellow. So while my patch jobs look find, you can notice a color differential. The CW article glossed over this issue, vaguely mentioning just matching the color by mixing appropriate pigments. If you can figure out how to make the color match, let me in on it. It may be with a sprayer you can feather the edge so the color blends in better.... Good luck
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A.L. ("Jim") Willis Pres of ISLAND GIRL PROD.
Color matching and blending.
THe human eye is extremely perceptive to small differences in color. Also color can look different in different light (especially artificial versus natural). THe human eye cannot, however see differences in color is the color blends very gently. With car paint (I've done this a lot) the sectret is to expose the natural color of the paint (sanding/compounding) then blend with a spayer, widenening the blended area, adding clear to the color, then compounding/polishing the thing out. I will check into our local source of gelcoat repair kits sine they have small amounts of color to add to make the color match. However, I do not think the clear idea will work since the resins is naturally slightly yellow. Thanks Jimn W
THe human eye is extremely perceptive to small differences in color. Also color can look different in different light (especially artificial versus natural). THe human eye cannot, however see differences in color is the color blends very gently. With car paint (I've done this a lot) the sectret is to expose the natural color of the paint (sanding/compounding) then blend with a spayer, widenening the blended area, adding clear to the color, then compounding/polishing the thing out. I will check into our local source of gelcoat repair kits sine they have small amounts of color to add to make the color match. However, I do not think the clear idea will work since the resins is naturally slightly yellow. Thanks Jimn W
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