Please Help! Gelcoat questions...im very confused

[efiedler]

Hi - Ive read numerous articles on repairing gelcoat but some seem to have differing answers and im trying to get one final approach to solving my problem:

I was involved in accidnent last season in which ''chunks'' of my gelcoat were scratched off..there is no laminate/fiberglass damage or cracks. Just, more or less, flaking of the gelcoat in about dollar bill size pieces due to scraping along a rock jetty. I am confused as to whether I should approact this as a ''scratch'' or a ''flaking'' situation. The only difference I see in the two, is that for scratch repairs most documents say to run a putty knife or something down the scratch to ''open it up'' before reapplying gelcoat. This doesnt seem to be the same for ''flaking'' repairs. A worker at a boating store told me all I need to do, he reccomended, was sand the area down, put an adhesive fiberglass sealant over the area (he showed me a product), and then re-gelcoat. Does this make sense? What about ''opening'' the area like most articles say to do for a scratch?

Thanks in advance

[RichH]

A pro can ''spray'' gelcoat over a repair to make the repair (almost) invisible. Typical cost for a dollar bill size repair of a ding isnt that much. All depends on how much ''artist'' you are if you repair it yourself.