these cracks are driving me nuts !!!!

[bryceman2712]

ok so i just bought my first boat Sunday. It is a 1992 Century Mustang and even tho it is in nice shape it has these small cracks around the top side in many locations. I like to learn new stuff and have always wanted to learn fiberglass so after watching many videos online about repairing fiberglass I have the general idea of how it works. My concern is with the age of the boat it is kind of a pale or chalky white and if I open these cracks up and fill them in even using a white gel coat will I need to repaint or re gel coat the entire boat to hide the repairs? or would a simple cut a buff hide the repairs along with bringing the original white back to new? what options do I have here or should I just leave well enough alone and enjoy the boat for a year or two then upgrade to something younger? Thanks for your thoughts. will post pictures shortly.

 

[poconojoe]

I'm not an expert on this subject, but I think you will have a very hard time matching the color of your gel coat. I would leave it alone as long as it's just superficial.

 

[bryceman2712]

some reason it will not let me post pics. keeps saying photo exceeds the limit of so many bytes

 

[jbcurt00]

The pix are probably too large, even poor quality cellphone cameras can take over a 10MB pix

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/forum-rules-and-guidelines/9938375-photo-upload-tutorial
I use option 3 ^^^

 

[fhhuber]

Gel coat cracks are from fiberglass flexing. You will never cure the cracking without preventing flexing. This may or may not be possible.

The Corvette Stingray fiberglass bodies were known for having the issue. No one ever found a way to prevent it other than to find perfectly smooth roads. Hit potholes and you could guarantee it would eventually crack the gel coat...

Boats tend to be a bit stiffer and not crack as "reliably" without having structural issues. But this doesn't mean its due to something needing repair (wood rot). Your hull may just have a little more flex than most. Or it may be ready to fall apart... SOME flexing is normal. Fiberglass either bends a bit or it shatters.

The pale chalky can buff off or there are some products which might restore the surface appearance. Cleaning up the surface will often also make the cracks less visible.

 

[tpenfield]

As far as the pic posting goes, I usually resize the pics so that they are under the 200KB limit, then post them. If you use a photobucket account, you also want to make sur ether are not the full multi megabyte size that the cameras take these days,

As far as the gelcoat cracks, you may want to just leave them for now and see how things go this season. Posting the pictures will be helpful, but they are probably hairline cracks from a combination of the boat's age and the boat flexing.

Unless you are really good at fiberglass and particularly gelcoat repairs ( which few of us are) you will make more of a mess than you will resolve the issue.

 

[bryceman2712]

OK I think I'm gonna just leave them alone because seems like these repairs could run double or triple what I even paid for this boat if I get in over my head.

 

[harleyman1975]

I think that you will feel plenty of accomplishment from just sanding and buffing your gelcoat back to like new condition. You can justfy a new d/a sander and a v/s polisher. We can talk you through it step by step!

 

[fhhuber]

Depends on how faded/aged/oxidized it is.

Might just be a buff out with rubbing compound and an automotive random/orbital buffer.
Might be sand then buff.
You might sand/buff right through the gel coat and not get to good gel coat.

 

[bryceman2712]

So I stopped by the hardware and picked up some 1000 grit sandpaper just to kinda see what would happen. I lightly went over a few of the smaller cracks and it looks as if the dust is going down into the cracks because they started to dissappear as I was sanding. It was making a difference on the boat but I stopped because the boat needs a good power washing to clean off dirt and road debris and such.

 

[ondarvr]

The cracks won't disappear after sanding or buffing, but if you use a buffing compound that's the same color as the gel coat it will fill the cracks and possibly hide them for a short time, short time is key part of it.

 

[bryceman2712]

Sounds like this will be a time consuming project and with spring so close I'm just going to enjoy the boat this year and learn fiberglass over this upcoming winter. Was all over the boat today and the motor is cleaner than my truck do I feel it would be worth putting the time in to fill the cracks and just repaint the boat. Which will probably turn into interior also because I can't leave anything alone. Lol