Went a little overboard scraping my hull... now I need to fill some gouges

[cdhickey]

I started off with good intentions this weekend- my plan was to lightly scrape off any loose bottom paint and lightly sand it to prep for a new coat next weekend. Well, as I got started the 20 years worth of thick, lumpy paint started coming off in large patches, right down to the gelcoat. I decided to just scrape off everything with all the grace and precision of an orangutan wielding a carbide tipped scraper.

When the dust settled, I had a fairly clean hull. Unfortunately, I had also made a handful of gouges in the gelcoat, including at least one where I exposed the laminate. I'm guessing that not repairing these will lead to big problems (blistering, delamination, fits of swearing) so I'd like to get them filled before painting. After reading Don Casey, it seems like the right approach is to carve out the gouges a bit and fill with thickened epoxy. Does this sound like a reasonable approach? Any tips or words of caution? Also, would anyone like me to scrape their boat for them?

Here's a picture of my handiwork to add to my embarrassment:

[TQA]

[QUOTE=cdhickey;721387] carve out the gouges a bit and fill with thickened epoxy. QUOTE]

Dat's what I would do.

Scrape, wipe with acetone and use colloidal silica as the thickening agent.

Wet sand to fair OR use a REALLY good mask. Epoxy dust is nasty [ ask me how I know this. ]