How to Repair Fiberglass on a Boat Updated

How to Repair Fiberglass on a Boat

Set up the scratches in your boat's gelcoat that sometimes occur at the docks. Canoeing Magazine

Own a fiberglass boat long enough, and you'll cease upwardly with a scratch, nick or gouge in the terminate. It might be from a muffed landing, a dropped pair of fishing pliers or only a hole drilled in the wrong place. You lot can normally fix gelcoat repairs yourself. It takes a chip of patience, but exercise it right and few volition notice.

Complications occur when at that place's damage on a textured surface like diamond nonskid or on a multitone finish. For these, phone call in a pro. Also, deep gouges may demand structural fiberglass work or filler before you repair the gelcoat. On horizontal surfaces, liquid gelcoat works, just for vertical surfaces, a paste is easier to apply. The first footstep is identifying the finish on your boat.

Getting Started
Finish Time: 1-2 hrs
Skill Level: 3/v

Tools and Supplies
*Masking record
*Hand-held grinder and bits
*Countersink fleck and drill motor
*Gelcoat resin and goad
*Coloring agents
*Acetone
*Mixing cups
*Stir sticks
*Latex gloves
*Dust mask
*Cleanup rags
*Putty pocketknife
*Moisture/dry sandpaper (320-, 600- and 1,000 grit)
*PVA curing amanuensis
*Rubbing compound
*Boat wax

You'll need to fill deep gouges with resin and filler before applying finish. Epoxy resin and fillers attach better than polyester products but price more and require several actress steps prior to applying the finish color of either gelcoat or boat paint. If you cull pigment, topside alkyd enamels, polyurethanes and others are bachelor from Interlux and Pettit.

How to Repair Gelcoat

Gelcoat Repair

Match the color of the gelcoat. Boating Magazine

ane. Match the Color
For electric current boats, your dealer might be able to supply matching gelcoat. But due to weathering on your boat, it may not match. In that location are kits from companies such every bit Evercoat with pigments to add to the resin for a match. If you have a sample, you can match a gallon of gelcoat from Rayplex Composites (fibreglass.com).

Gelcoat Repair

Clean upwards the edges where the gelcoat was damaged. Boating Magazine

2. Clean Up Edges
Use a rotary grinder to smooth the edges to a 45-degree bevel and eliminate any loose material. If repairing a drilled pigsty, the surface might take get elevated from the upward pressure level of an old fastener. Use a countersink bit or rotary file and a drill motor to carefully grind away the bloated perimeter. Scrape away any old sealant and clean upwards with acetone.

Gelcoat Repair

Tape off the area around the damaged gelcoat. Boating Magazine

three. Tape It Off
Carefully mask effectually the edges of the fiberglass boat repair area with two-inch-broad 3M ScotchBlue Multi-Surface Painter's Tape No. 2090. Give yourself a 16th of an inch of unmasked margin around the scratch, gouge or hole. Also, mask off any side by side areas or items to protect them from inadvertently applied gelcoat or errant sanding. Clean upwardly the repair expanse again with acetone.

Mix the gelcoat with the hardener to gear up for application. Boating Magazine

4. Mix the Gelcoat
After you take color-matched the corporeality of gelcoat needed for the repair, add goad (aka hardener). Different gelcoat resins crave unlike catalysts, so make sure you are using the proper formula, every bit well as the correct ii-function ratio (due east.thou., four drops of goad per teaspoon of resin). Mix the two parts thoroughly with a stir stick to ensure that the unabridged batch will cure at the same time.

Utilise the gelcoat to the damaged area. Canoeing Magazine

five. Apply Gelcoat
Use a pocket-sized forest or plastic putty knife to spread the gelcoat smoothly over the gelcoat repair. Yous should have nearly 10 to 15 minutes of working time afterwards adding the catalyst earlier it starts to harden and is no longer fluid. Fill up the repair slightly higher than the surrounding surface to allow for sanding. If you don't program to sand, make it even with the surrounding surface. Either manner, spray information technology with a PVA curing amanuensis.

Sand and polish the surface area with sand paper. Then apply boat wax. Boating Mag

half dozen. Sand It Out
Pare off the PVA. Wet-sand the cured gelcoat with 320-grit wet/dry paper on a soft sanding block. Circumscribed piece of work to the immediate repair surface area, continue wet-sanding with 600-dust paper until well-nigh even with surrounding gelcoat. End wet-sanding with ane,000-dust paper; and so buff out with rubbing chemical compound followed by a coat of wax. If not sanding, merely skin off the PVA and apply wax.