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View Full Version : Gel Coat Chip - How Do I Fix This



RedDog
12-12-2006, 04:16 PM
Boo-boo from last run of the season. The bow banged the underside of the trailer bow-stop.

How do I repair this? As you can see the gel will have to be built up a fair amount and then contoured.

The Mini-Craft web site lists a Gelcoat Patching Paste Kit for $92.00. I guess they can match the color. Sure seems like a lot to only repair an area about the size of a quarter.

Any suggestions?

Carl C
12-12-2006, 04:27 PM
Reddog, I did the same thing but not as bad. On a steep ramp the bow goes under the bow stop if you're not careful. I matched the color with a little brush bottle of car touch up paint. I had to build up the area with at least 10 coats then carefully wet sanded the edges. The repair came out nice but the color (yellow) was not a perfect match. Yours looks worse, maybe you should pop for the gel-coat kit. That really sucks, good luck fixing it.

gcarter
12-12-2006, 05:46 PM
Yep, Minicraft.
I'm not sure what's in the kit, as I've not bought a kit, but only the patch paste. The patch paste is woundeful! A half pint can is about $55.00-60.00 with wax and UV inhibitor. It has a shelf life of about 3 months after you open it. Just fill it as much as you can w/several applications required with something that size as it shrinks.........a LOT!
I eventually over fill it a little, then use a piece of paint stir stick as a sanding block with a strip of 180 wet or dry wrapped around the stick and wet sand it till it's flush. The idea is to NOT sand the surrounding area, only the filled area. Once your paper gets to the finished surface, sand a little more w' 400, then 800, 1200 etc. Then I KNOW you know how to get a shine on it.
Oh yeah, clean the filled gel w/ acetone after each application dries, otherwise you waste a lot of paper.

gcarter
12-12-2006, 05:48 PM
Just took another look...of course you know to get that delaminated piece out of there.

Mr X
12-12-2006, 06:44 PM
Its hard to tell from the pic, but you might need a bit more than a paste patch for it to stay on there any lenght of time.
I would grind out a 3" radious all around the ding. Lay some glass in there.
Then spray the gel on it and sand and buff it out.
How big is the ding?

RedDog
12-12-2006, 06:47 PM
Just took another look...of course you know to get that delaminated piece out of there.

Do tell?

I assume grind / sand until back to solid material?

gcarter
12-12-2006, 06:59 PM
I'm not going to disagree w/Ted as he has a lot of experience, but since these are high res pictures and if it is only the size of a quarter, maybe not grind 3". But maybe grind the edges w/ a Dremel till the edges are in good shape and then fill. The nice thing about paste, if it is only 3/4"-1" in diameter is you can build material a lot faster than spraying it on. The skinned up area might need a small amount of polyester paste with milled fibers added. It is hard to fill an area w/o filling too much and then the gel would be too thin. The nice thing about gel is you can do it over till you're happy with it.

MOP
12-12-2006, 09:07 PM
Ted is 100%! There is more to the fix then the eye sees, a hit like that usually breaks the gel coats bond a little farther out from what is visible. I would feather it back with a small disc grinder using relatively fine paper. It pays to take your time cutting it back, Like Ted says you may have to build it up with a little glass cloth. Never liked laying gel coat thick can lead to it cracking down the road.

CHACHI
12-13-2006, 05:55 AM
use a piece of paint stir stick as a sanding block with a strip of 180 wet or dry wrapped around the stick and wet sand it till it's flush.Artifical fingernail sanding boards work wonderful in this application. They come in different grits and when they clog you can re-trim the board to get a new surface. Ken

mrfixxall
12-13-2006, 01:57 PM
grind it out with 80 grit,,,,get your gelcoat from minicraft ask them for some fillin powder mix it into the gel until its like a putty then spread it on likr bondo and cover it with wax paper..leave the wax paper on until it cures,block it with 220 to start then go to 320 until you get all the 220 scratches out..then get a rubberized roller from minicraft and mix more gel up and put some release wax into the gel and apply 3 coats of gel overlapiing each coat..let each coat start to kick off before applying another coat..wait 48 hrs then wetsand and buff...
good luck

Donzigo
12-14-2006, 12:43 AM
Ted's got it right................he usually does.

My fiberglass guy here in St. Pete is one of the best around. This would be a three stop repair and would cost about $250. Of course, it would be puuuurfect, as well. I usually have him come every couple of years and do the dings and it's usually around $500 to get em all.

gcarter
12-15-2006, 07:45 PM
I can't stand it!!!!
I gotta sound off one more time.
This is a very small chip in the gelcoat. Gel is maybe 1/16" to 3/32 thick. There's also one even smaller spot where the underlying mat was abraided. The mat only prevents print through. It adds virtually no strength. If a person were to lay any glass, of any kind, it would be above the surface!!!!! Then what would you do?
Also there's one spot where the gell has seperated from the mat.
Here is what I've done many times to repair similar spots.
1) With a Dremel, grind the seperated piece of gel out.
2) Trim/grind, again with the Dremel, all around the circumference of the chip until you have good, solid, well connected, gel.
3) With the Dremel, grind the abraided mat until it's solid.
Note) Again, this is a small ding. The bigger you make it, the harder it is to repair sucessfully.
4) Mix a VERY small amount of polyester paste with some milled fibers and even up the surface where the abraided mat was ground out.
5) When the paste/fibers have hardened, grind/sand smooth so that it is even with the rest of the of the underlying glass.
6) Fill the ding with the colormatched Minicraft patch paste. This will take two to three steps as you have to overfill the ding. If you order the patch paste w/wax, you don't have to tape over it or anything. Just clean the surface w/ acetone before you start sanding or filling to rid the surface of the wax.
7) When the total area of the ding is above the surface of the surrounding gel, start sanding the filled area only (don't allow the sandpaper to even touch the surrounding area)
8) Once the surface is even, color sand to 1200 or 1500 and buff.

I have 40 or 50 of these I filled on the Minx deck and I would challenge anyone to find them.

RedDog
12-16-2006, 08:42 AM
Thanks George - the laying of glass didn't make sense to me for a quarter-sized ding.

RickR
12-16-2006, 06:28 PM
Fiberglass Technologies 932-3708, Dandridge, Bud repaired the same type dings on the 18. Color will NOT match perfectly.