Gelcoat repair

[ekhar]

Having just purschased a beautiful "big" boat for me, I managed to kiss the slip the first two times coming in. I took a byte out of the gelcoat on both sides of the boat. Not lifetreatening but it will need to be fixed.(Afterwards, I had a discussion with a dockmaster and since I managed to come in just fine every time)

The color is slightly off-white, and I know that will be a pain. But I''d like some tips/methods/pointers on the job of fixing the gelcoat.

I plan to be doing the job over the winter when the boat is on hard. What kind of weather conditions will I need for the stuff to cure?

Thanks for the advice
Gene

[hamiam]

I would goto www.westsystem.com and poke around. I believe they have publications that you can download.

[windship]

ekhar,
Don''t use epoxy, use polyester gelcoat to repair gelcoat.
What procedures are you planning to use?

Dennis

[paulk]

Chandleries have the gelcoat repair kits, which work fine if you follow the directions. What the directions can''t tell you is how to get the colors to match properly. If your boat''s builder is still in business, you may be able to get the matching gelcoat color from them. Otherwise, you have to find out on your own how many drops of which pigments will create the exact match. There may be some wierd, non-intuitive tricks in order to get some colors, like adding a drop of yellow or black to the mix. It can take some time and experimenting, becase the color can shift a little as the gelcoat hardens.

[MaryBeth]

No weather conditions are specific for a gelcoat to cure, something noone else has mentioned here. What is needed for gelcoat to cure, no matter what you have to go through to mix and match the coloring, no matter what temperature, is that it needs to be covered with a mold release or, if just a tiny patch, a bit of cellophane or wax paper. The entire idea behind the actual gelcoat curing to the nice hard finish we all want is that it is deprived of oxygen until it actually does set. If there is no barrier to the oxygen in the air, gelcoat will remain tacky til the end of time (or so it seems for those who haven''t done so and are trying too late to remedy the problem...<g>)

Not a hard thing to do, but please just read the directions so you have no ''soft spots'' that you keep having to repair with no idea of how they keep getting messed up.

MaryBeth

[ekhar]

thanks for all the responses. I have no clue as to what I''m going to do or how. But I certainly will go and read. Once I read, I''m sure will post more questions. But for now, I''m going to sail and enjoy the boat. This repair will be done in the spring when the boat is on hard.