help needed

[Fishermanjm]

i totally f-ed up approaching the dock over the weekend and did this,,,,,,,, now what??? how do i fix this temporarily,,, i know it needs to be fixed correctly over the winter but for now, what do i do?

[Morgan's Cloud]

Well depending on where you boat out of , winter might be just a few weeks away. Can you turn a blind eye to it until then ?

Appears to be the result of a hostile nail or something similar sticking out of the dock finger .

I'd say a simple gelcoat touch up and you're good to go again. But be warned , colour match up is pretty iffy and it's a very tedious process to get exactly right , both in terms of finish and colour .

I have a feeling that George will be able to walk you through it blindfolded ..

[gcarter]

Jim, this isn't a big problem. And whether you do it now or over the winter, the solution is the same.
Minicraft of Florida https://www.minicraft.com/retail/donzimarine.htm
has a thickened gel product called patch paste. It's color matched to your boat.
Overfill the chipped area w/the patchpaste and cover it w/some 2" wide celophane strapping tape. Let it harden for a day before you do anything.
Pull off the tape and maybe wait another day or two to let it shrink a bit.
When you're ready to start sanding, I cut a short piece off of a wood paint stir stick.....maybe 1" long. Wrap your new mini sanding block w/ some fairly course sandpaper. The idea is to sand the raised/filled gel down untill it's almost flush w/the rest of the surrounding area. Anyway, continue to sand it down (but don't touch the rest of the gel) until you are sanding w/800 or so. Then continue to color sand until you are ready to buff the area.
It's really pretty easy to do. It'll cost about $100 +/-.

[RedDog]

Sorry for your woes but it is fixable. I've done worse banging my trailer. George has the answer.

[Fishermanjm]

thanks guys i'm sick thinkin about it, George I will look into that product tomorrow, but u think it will be ok to wait,, i have no time right now and i want to get out this weekend

[zelatore]

Not the end of the world - happens to the best of 'em.

It's above the waterline, so I don't see any problem waiting a couple months to do the repair.

[silverghost]

Sorry you had this accident .
You have to watch those docks that have all sorts of things sticking out that can damage & take cunks out of, & scratch, your boat.

At least you are dealing with a white color which is fairly easy to color match & blend.
Some colors are very tough, if not almost impossible to match correctly.

[mike o]

In your neighborhood. All you need is a couple of tablespoons of gel just to seal it. It will keep the moisture out of the laminate. You can block it out later. I have some white gel here, but it wont match exactly. But Ill dab it up for Ya.

[biggiefl]

I have 2 chips in the rear corners of mine from the idiots running the travel hoist at the PO's marina. It is just gel and water will not get past the matt, etc unless you let it sit for a year in the water. Yours is above the waterline...relax and wait until spring. Gel needs to be done above 70 degrees, closer to 80 if you can but don't do it too hot like 90 degrees. Kinda tricky to get the temp right. George is correct and if you google Youtube you will find a few videos on exactly what George is saying except most spray it but I agree with the paste which I am going to order some red today if they have it.

[CHACHI]

The patch paste works very well. I fixed 3 chips in my Minx when I owned it.

As George said, overfill and wait!

I also found that the emery boards used for fake nails work very well for sanding.

Ken

[Fishermanjm]

sounds good Ken, i'm gettin some of the paste and gonna try my luck at the repair, i will put some tape over the diggers to keep moisture out of it for this weekend
jim