Any Advice?

[DonziFreak]

i have a 1967 18ft 2+3 that was handed down from me from my father and his father before, it is very old and still kicking! i have a Chevy 350 in it and the engine is awsome! everything in the boat works like it should except for the trim on the drive, which is not a big deal since we race boats, so mechanical issues are easy for us, what i need advice on is the gel-coat...being that the boat is 39 years old, the original gel-coat on the deck has cracked up very well.....and the interior has faded and cracked from so much usage, the interior im already looking to replace, but only after i deal with the gel-coat, anyone have any advice as to what i should to? (fill in and re-paint? or what?)

Thanks, Carlos

[gcarter]

In the end, it probably won't matter which way you go, but the cracks will have to be eliminated. They will have to ground out completely and filled.
If you wish to stay w/gel, Minnicraft of Florida in Wildwood https://www.minicraft.com/retail/donzimarine.htm makes color matched gel paste that can save a lot of time.

[DonziFreak]

cool, thanks for the tip, il post some pictures of the cracking and the rest of the boat today, im just gonna warn you guys that the interior is a disaster!

[BigGrizzly]

Don't worry about the interior, we have all been there. Besides you asked for help not critique. That boat was Gel coated not painted. I painted mine do to price. however the cracks did reappear after 6 years, they may be revisited but I did fill with gel before refinishing. But it still looks pretty good. BTW welcome to the board.

[DonziFreak]

well, i could not get the pictures today....got the boat stored at my grandfathers house along with our race boats and i could'nt stop by today...grrrrr, il grab them tomorrow, and thanks for the advice of filling in and the paint, thats what i was thinking of doing....but i don't know yet, the budget is real small here on this one due to the recent purchase of a $20,000 turn-key race boat....:boggled:
by the way, thanks for the welcome!

Carlos

[justleft]

Paint stands up to the sun better.

But gel holds up better under the water.

[gcarter]

Perhaps I spoke too strongly in my original response. The cracks, if filled, always tend to come back. Filling them effectively can be difficult. If they're large cracks, you can use a Dremel with a small ball end cutter and make them larger and fill them pretty well. But the filler likes to shrink. This is something that can be quite exasperating. If it's thousands of spider cracks, the only way to totally eliminate them is to grind them down to the underlying glass and fill the area. If you intend to paint, you don't have to use gel to fill with. You can use polyester putty and fill then use an air file to flatten. If you have some time on your hands, there's not of cost, just a lot of labor.
Anyway, good luck with it.

[Cuda]

I had a guy fix a bunch of spider cracks in my Minx when I first bought it. He said the only way to get them out, was to either grind them out, or cut them out.