Social Icons

Pages

Saturday, January 5, 2013

How Boat Fiberglass and Gel Coat Can Damage and How You Could Repair It

By Karen Smith


Boat fiberglass damage can occur as an outcome of a storm, an accident, beaching or docking while its gel coat gets damaged through nicking, splitting or scratching. But you do not need to be afraid as there are tools and parts that could be utilized to do the needed repair, having your fiberglass boat look brand-new once again.

The first thing to do would be to examine exactly how bad the damage is so that you could evaluate whether the boat could be repaired at home or must be done by an expert. If the gel coat is ruined with the fiberglass, a professional should do the repair work in a shop. He would then inspect the whole damage to determine if it is structural or not. If the damage is done only on the gel coat, the following step should not be skipped.

If the damage on the gel coat is a scratch, you will need to get a gel coat repair work kit. Get an energy knife and create the letter "V" on the scratch. The resin of gel coat is very thin and could not fill a minor scrape. The paste of gel coat is really thick, hence it will just bridge the scrape and not permeate it triggering a void. As you prepare the scrape, do not cut the matting of the fiberglass.

When the damage is a gouge or is because of an impact, take the affected gel coat off from the perimeter. If the loose or broken coat is at the repair's perimeter, it shall split and should undergo repair the second time at the specific spot. You will have to make the broken area rough using 80-grit sandpaper.

Prepare the damaged area then place sufficient amount of resin in a paper cup that is waxed. Place coloring brokers on the resin till it is 1/2 a shade darker than your damaged area. When you are pleased with the resin's color, get an adequate amount of hardener per directions in the repair kit of the gel coat. Get a scrape or plastic spreader to gradually place resin on the afflicted location. Do not trap air bubbles while repairing.

The repair should bulge a bit at the back of the spreader. As the resin cures, it will shrink. Make certain the repair does not bulge much as you will certainly have to sand much more later. Remove excess paste further from the patch location.

Get waxed paper on the whole area after filling the repair work area. If needed, utilize tape for securing functions. The resin must set as shown in your gel coat repair instructions. Sand the affected location till it is even with the gel coat's surface after the repair work area has hardened and looks flushed with the locations around yet feels a bit raised when touched.

Get a bowl of clean water and dip your 400-grit sandpaper to moisten it. Sand your repair area till it smoothens. When the sandpaper is wet regularly, it shall remove the product of the gel coat from the sandpaper. It also stays clear of damage to the fixed location. If the water comes to be much tarnished and the bowl's bottom could not be seen, replace with fresh water.

Get 600-grit sandpaper, dip it into a bowl of clean water and then sand your fixed location till it is very shiny. Continue wetting the sandpaper if needed so about get superior results. Pour out water from your bowl if it gets too discolored then place clean water again. Follow this up with primer coat.

When you follow these actions, you will see your boat fiberglass and its gel coat appear new once more.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment