Best primer for my 68

[Forino]

My 68' 18' is almost ready for paint and as many boats it's age the fiberglass has many small stress cracks. I was wondering if anyone had painted their older boat and how the stress cracks held up with the primer they chose. I sanded the boat down to the original gel coat. Thanks guys.

[BlownCrewCab]

There is NO Better Primer than Gel Coat. if you have it sanded down to the gel, get a good epoxy primer that will fill the voids and cracks, some may require glazing putty, evercoat formula 27 would be my choice, it gets hard like gel coat and can be painted over without primer if needed.

[VetteLT193]

I just did a ton of research on this... for a long lasting crack free future you really want to grind out all the cracks and fill them. If you just prime over them they will look filled for a while but will come back.

It isn't terribly difficult with a dremel tool.

[mrfixxall]

What vett said is true,you will never get rid of the cracks if you dont grind them out and feather back the edge at leaste 6 times the amount of the crack.also you may want to wipe over the crack with actone to see how deep it really is and to see how far into the glass you have to grind..if you plan on painting the boat you want to use a 2 part primer like dupont makes or sikkens 3+1 is what i used on just the top deck..you cant use primer under the water line because paint is pouras and the water will seep through the paint and will come off if the boat is left in the water for a long period of time..

[BigGrizzly]

On the Corsican, I did grind out the cracks and filled both with No 27 and gell indifferent places, Epoxied primer the whole thing then painted with a 2 part poly paint now after 14 years they are showing up again, Oh yea about 300 hours on it and not babied.

[gcarter]

I don't think there's any alternative to grinding them all out.
On the TR, there was examples of every kind of repair imaginable and all of them were visible.:confused::confused::confused::confused::(
When they are REALLY bad, i.e., a crack every 1/4", ya just gotta grind all the gel off. Then re-gel and fair out the surface w/the gel.
Lots of work, but do-able.

[BigGrizzly]

Mine were spider cracks on the deck by the rub rail.