Fiberglass starter project (7 pics)

[pro-crastinator]

Good afternoon to all.
1993 vintage Gheenoe.
Original, 15'4?, never seen any fiberglass repairs, transom does not seem bad.

Questions:
Should I consider vinyl-ester resin?
Will a quart of gel-coat cover the entire hull exterior?
Will a gel-coated rolled finish be able to be wet-sanded to what a boat should look like?
How much resin to order?
How much fiberglass to order?

I wanted a small craft that I could store in the yard within 30 feet of the lake.
Didn't want to fool with a trailer and wanted to ?use? a jet ski crank up lift to assist in getting her out of the water when it was time to put her up. (narrow 3' 8? beam) Wife says I got it because I had a 1958 Johnson 7.5 that needed a transom to bolt on.
I cant say she is totally off base on that one.
Found the Gheenoe on craigslist and she has some wear marks as shown in the pics.
I worked on the hull with three different ?techniques?. Used gel coat heavy cut oxidation cleaner with my orbital polisher.
When that looked unimpressive, I progressed to Comet cleanser with bleach. Better but no.
Then tried a 80 grit sander (dry) that was OK, but better results were obtained using a weird abrasive
wheel on a drill that worked best of all. Fast, easy to control, would really dig in to the gel-coat if you lean on it ? like I did around the damaged spot that leaks water. It eroded the gel-coat evenly.
See pics attached.

One of my (many) plans is this:

1. Sand down hull with drill mounted wheel.
2. Repairs
   1. Chips in gel-coat
   2. ? inch holes in side of boat
   3. damaged spot that leaks water

I am leaning towards a polyester resin repair with 1708 and 1.5 oz CSM (chopped strand mat) for the chips, holes and drag damage to the hull. It would be amazing if a 1 quart can of gel-coat would cover the whole hull after I perform the necessary repairs.
Comments welcome.
Thanks in advance.
-Bennett

 

[gm280]

See if I can answer some of your questions. NO one quart of gel coat will not cover the entire hull. And not sure if you are only talking about repairing the damaged areas or wanting to refinish the entire hull. If you want to cover the entire hull, I suggest sanding down the old gel coat as a good start in the preparation for painting or new gel coat. Of course you want to use polyester resin for your repairs because epoxy will not work with gel coat or polyester resin which your boat is most likely make from. If you try to cover over cracked and problematic old gel coat, your new finish will not last long. Any quality finish is done in the preparation. If you can feel or see any imperfections in the primer coat, your finish coat will not cover over them... I suggest you look and read some of the other boaters projects on these forums to get a feel how to go about your project. There are hours upon hours of reading, pictures and videos about how to do most every type repair and finish... Others will chime in here and offer their best opinions as well and keep posting your pictures for us to see and assist you... :thumb:

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Good afternoon to all.

Questions:
Should I consider vinyl-ester resin?
Will a quart of gel-coat cover the entire hull exterior?
Will a gel-coated rolled finish be able to be wet-sanded to what a boat should look like?
How much resin to order?
How much fiberglass to order?

Hey Bennet how you doing. Here are some answers for ya.

Na..no bother with VE resin. Just a good quality poly should do.
Ditto on the one quart coverage answer. A gallon may do you after reduction and mixing if you were to spray it. But roll on?..hmm might be more.
Sure you can roll and finish it. Im not sure who the last cats name we helped out on this..but it turned out fine. He had some orange peel/texture problems though.
I would think a few quarts of resin from what I see in the pics. That should get the glassed wet and some filler mixed up.
Meh..one yard each would be overkill. But you can keep the scraps for any future Whoopsies.

Ive never used a flapper disk or wheelin wire type on a drill for my prep work before. I guess what ever your comfortable with and does the job. Thinkin an orbital or D.A. with some 80 grit would be faster. As far as getting every little nick and ding out..na. You would be amazed at what gel will fill. Now if it was paint sure. You would want to get every little thing that you can see ( and even more little things you cant see ). Gel ? Get-r-done..

 

[pro-crastinator]

Thanks for your responses GM280 and Dr Yacht.

Questions:
Should I consider vinyl-ester resin? NO
Will a quart of gel-coat cover the entire hull exterior? Looking at 1 gallon & sprayer
Will a gel-coated rolled finish be able to be wet-sanded to what a boat should look like? Yes, with wetsanding
How much resin to order? 2 qts to start
How much fiberglass to order? 1 yard each


I have been reading on the topic for a while now and did want to avoid the epoxy and go with a polyester based gelcoat.
Yes, the entire bottom is getting the gelcoat and it sounds like I need to pull out the sprayer.
I will re stock my supply of 80 grit and see how it goes.
The orange peel would be a good chance to practice wet sanding.
Thanks again
-Bennett