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View Full Version : 1994 Classic 16 blister/gelcoat problem



skifastinvt
09-17-2007, 08:27 PM
Hello everyone,

First post to the board, but have been enjoying reading for over a year. I have been looking for a turn key/near mint 16 (fresh water only) for about a year. I have found a nice 1994 in New Hampshire (i believe the owner has posted to this board before). It has about 150 hours on the engine (v6), interior is near mint, engine is spotless and ran well, and topside has nice shine and a few small dings (can hardly notice). What concerns me is the red gel coat at the waterline. It is fading to a pink, but also seems to be blistering. It has a bunch of little micro pimples below the waterline. It is only doing this on the red gelcoat. The white gel below the waterline is smooth. Not knowing any better, I would say this is a somewhat serious start to a blister problem. Has anyone seen this before? Is it an easy fix, or does it require a re-gel? I'm not really looking for a project, but the price is attractive ($8,000's). Any guidance you could provide would be great.

Thanks in advance!

Al

gcarter
09-17-2007, 08:55 PM
Hello everyone,
First post to the board, but have been enjoying reading for over a year. I have been looking for a turn key/near mint 16 (fresh water only) for about a year. I have found a nice 1994 in New Hampshire (i believe the owner has posted to this board before). It has about 150 hours on the engine (v6), interior is near mint, engine is spotless and ran well, and topside has nice shine and a few small dings (can hardly notice). What concerns me is the red gel coat at the waterline. It is fading to a pink, but also seems to be blistering. It has a bunch of little micro pimples below the waterline. It is only doing this on the red gelcoat. The white gel below the waterline is smooth. Not knowing any better, I would say this is a somewhat serious start to a blister problem. Has anyone seen this before? Is it an easy fix, or does it require a re-gel? I'm not really looking for a project, but the price is attractive ($8,000's). Any guidance you could provide would be great.
Thanks in advance!
Al
I've done more than one osmotic blister job. There is no easy fix. the gel must be removed, the underlying glass allowed to dry out, the blisters ground out, the glass then epoxied, filled w/thickened epoxy and then the red painted. Unfortunately you can't gel over epoxy.

gcarter
09-18-2007, 04:53 AM
You could also try removing the gel, drying, grinding the delaminated glass, filling w/ester based glass filled filler, then top w/vynalester resin and re-gel. But nothing is affective as epoxy.

Morgan's Cloud
09-18-2007, 06:28 AM
Is it a possibility that the red bootstripe is actually painted and not gel ?
Plenty of paints don't like hanging around the waterline and will soon 'pimple up' from being constantly wet .
If the white on the bottom is OK (and is known to be gelcoat) this might be what has happened and will only require a simple fix .
(Otherwise , refer to George's advice :biggrin:)

mrfixxall
09-18-2007, 09:33 AM
sounds like the sides are painted because ive never heard of gel turning pink at the water line...got pics?

skifastinvt
09-18-2007, 06:16 PM
Thanks for your response. Yes, I agree that the condition is more like a failed paint. Are we 100% sure that Donzi did not use paint? It really didn't look like paint, but how could I tell for sure? Either way, the boat seems to lose a lot of value due to the issue. Here are a few pictures. It's tricky because the boat was in the water, and the pics don't show much.

mrfixxall
09-18-2007, 06:33 PM
it looks like base clear coat paint job,,looks to me like the water got behind the cleat,,if you push on the pink spots does water squeeze out? in the one pic it looks like somebodt wetsanded the area and didnt buff it..gelcoat is real thick approx 50 ml where paint is 4-5 ml..do the holes look deep or as thin as a piece of paper?

skifastinvt
09-18-2007, 07:38 PM
My initial thought was that it was in fact a bad clearcoat. The best way to describe the blister is if I took my finger nail to it I could pop it very easily. It was like piercing a very thin film of plastic. Is it definate that Donzi didn't clear coat/paint the second hull color? If the boat does have a bad paint job, what is your opinion on the value of the boat?

Thanks!

RedDog
09-18-2007, 07:40 PM
So you haven't seen it up close out of the water? Seems that would be step 1 for a close inspection

skifastinvt
09-18-2007, 07:46 PM
I agree, it is wise to pull the boat out of the water to take a closer look. The problem is, I'm not really sure what I'm looking at. I was able to get a close enough look to see and fell the red was turning pink and showing micro bubbles. I reached underwater to feel the white gel and it was smooth. What I'm trying to figure out now is if it's worth a second look knowing it's not original (less value?) and needs a paint job (ball park price?) and not serious glass/gel coat work. What are opinions on value?

mrfixxall
09-18-2007, 11:01 PM
I agree, it is wise to pull the boat out of the water to take a closer look. The problem is, I'm not really sure what I'm looking at. I was able to get a close enough look to see and fell the red was turning pink and showing micro bubbles. I reached underwater to feel the white gel and it was smooth. What I'm trying to figure out now is if it's worth a second look knowing it's not original (less value?) and needs a paint job (ball park price?) and not serious glass/gel coat work. What are opinions on value?

im going years back,when talking to a salesman at a local dealer near me he told me that donzi used a what he called a hardcoat over the gel which was soppose to keep the boat looking like new..what your seeing is probably the aka hard coat coming off which is sikkens poly urathane clear. i would get the boat out of the water and take a better look at it.you may just be able to just wet sand the clear off and buff it..somtimes if you hold a razer blade flat enough you can chip the clear off with out chipping the gel..