fiberglass repair who been there and done that

[el pescador]

on the gunnels top edges around the black rub rail there serveral areas with 6in. long string like cracks could be from contact hitting the dock theres 4 or 5 in a group at these areas if anyone knows what i'm talking about and have repaired these please inform me with the best way to repair down the road i plan to use awl-grip for the decks and gunnel....thank for your time...regards

[Dave Hirshberg]

The cracks will have to be ground down to the fiberglass thru the gelcoat. If you don't grind that far they will come back. Use a die grinder or roto-tool with a christmas tree shaped bit and follow the cracks for their entire length.Make about an eighth inch wide groove down to the raw fiberglass. Then clean them out and fill with a stromg fiberglass putty filler. I use a product called AD-Tech white filler. Then finish sand and either paint or gel coat back to the required finish. I can e-mail pic of the process. Hope this helps.

[JohnS]

Go here.....

www.westsystem.com

This stuff is fantastic, used it many times and never, EVER, had to redo the repairs.

John

[Ed]

El Pescador-

Here is a great way to make those cracks dissapear forever.

1) Use a grinder and grind out each crack until you hot solid fiberglass structure. Then take some 80 grit paper and sand around the repair area liberally (you need to scuff up the existing gelcoat or paint so that the new gelcoat or paint will have some bite to stick to)

2) vaccum up the dust and wipe down the repair area with Acetone.

3) Get some 24 ounce roven....and pull a few long strands out of it. Take 2-3 strands and braid them together. Cut the braids to the size of the ground out cracks.

4) Wet out the repair area with a bit of resin and insert the braided roven and wet it out too. Let cure

5) Take 36 grit paper and blend.

6) mix up some fiberglass putty and spread a thin coat over the repair area. Let cure and blend.

7) mix up some fairing putty and spread a thin coat over the repair area. Let cure and blend.

8) OPTIONAL but Recommended. Depending on where the cracks are.....try to see if you can gain access behind the damage area. (This may require you cutting an access hole in a non-structural are) If you can gain access behind the repair....lightly grind down the area (you're only doing this to give the new glass a surface to adhere to) and vaccum up dust and wipe down with acetone. Now, take a piece of that biaxial glass with the mat woven in and wet it out with resin and apply to the back off the damaged area. Replace the glass from the access port that you cut out, glass back in place, blend in and shoot the whole enchilada with gelcoat or paint.

I know it is a lot of work....but that is how my buddy taught me to do it and the cracks he fixes never come back.