Now that I can forsee the end of the large scale remedial construction work on my Coastworker, I need to start planning the best methods for tidying up the sides and underneath of the hull.
This boat has been treated harshly by previous owners, and while I know I don't really have the time & skill to make it look like it just came out of a showroom, I would like to clean up its appearance as best as I reasonably can do.
The chines and strakes (and keel) of the boat have got loads of chips/scratches/gouges, and scrapes through the gelcoat, and in a few places, there are small bits of matting just about exposed.
I'm looking for advice on the most effective and hard wearing means of repairing these, bearing in mind that finish techniques are my weak point.
For the most part I'm talking about chips out of the gelcoat that for arguments sake might be on average a 10mm circle, and 2-5mm deep. The deeper ones just about expose matting, but obviously these are very small areas. These tend to be on the chines of the hull.
Then, there are scrapes which are larger area, and these tend to be on the strakes & keel. There's several of these and I'd say they vary from 5-15cm in length, maybe 1-2cm wide.
Products I've already got in the garage are:
Epoxy
Polyester resin
CSM
Roving
Tissue
Biaxial tape
"Choppies" (6mm strands)
Microfibre filler
"Marine Filler" (this stuff: http://www.mailspeedmarine.com/gelcoat-filler/plastic-padding/marine-filler-junior270763.bhtml)
Gelcoat (unwaxed stuff - have got some wax on its way to me)
The stuff I bought with a view to filling small chips and gouges was the plastic padding marine filler product, but on inspection of it, it seems very much like car bodyfiller and while it might be a good product I can't help but think it won't stand up to the rigours of time and jetwashing and so on when use to fill these sort of things. No basis for this doubt admittedly and it might be fine.
Plastic Padding also make a 'gelcoat filler' which I'll try to get so I can try it out.
But what is the best thing to get a very strong & lasting fill on things like this?
Again, when it comes to the longer scrapes where strands of CSM are exposed, what's the most secure repair for these? Should I be grinding them back a bit, and adding some CSM, then maybe tissue & gelcoat to finish?
Ideally, I want to get the hull upside down, but it might not be all that practical given the limited space.
With a boat like this (assuming it's sitting on something soft and supported at numerous points) is it going to harm it to have it sat on its side if I have to?
Many thanks
Jim
This boat has been treated harshly by previous owners, and while I know I don't really have the time & skill to make it look like it just came out of a showroom, I would like to clean up its appearance as best as I reasonably can do.
The chines and strakes (and keel) of the boat have got loads of chips/scratches/gouges, and scrapes through the gelcoat, and in a few places, there are small bits of matting just about exposed.
I'm looking for advice on the most effective and hard wearing means of repairing these, bearing in mind that finish techniques are my weak point.
For the most part I'm talking about chips out of the gelcoat that for arguments sake might be on average a 10mm circle, and 2-5mm deep. The deeper ones just about expose matting, but obviously these are very small areas. These tend to be on the chines of the hull.
Then, there are scrapes which are larger area, and these tend to be on the strakes & keel. There's several of these and I'd say they vary from 5-15cm in length, maybe 1-2cm wide.
Products I've already got in the garage are:
Epoxy
Polyester resin
CSM
Roving
Tissue
Biaxial tape
"Choppies" (6mm strands)
Microfibre filler
"Marine Filler" (this stuff: http://www.mailspeedmarine.com/gelcoat-filler/plastic-padding/marine-filler-junior270763.bhtml)
Gelcoat (unwaxed stuff - have got some wax on its way to me)
The stuff I bought with a view to filling small chips and gouges was the plastic padding marine filler product, but on inspection of it, it seems very much like car bodyfiller and while it might be a good product I can't help but think it won't stand up to the rigours of time and jetwashing and so on when use to fill these sort of things. No basis for this doubt admittedly and it might be fine.
Plastic Padding also make a 'gelcoat filler' which I'll try to get so I can try it out.
But what is the best thing to get a very strong & lasting fill on things like this?
Again, when it comes to the longer scrapes where strands of CSM are exposed, what's the most secure repair for these? Should I be grinding them back a bit, and adding some CSM, then maybe tissue & gelcoat to finish?
Ideally, I want to get the hull upside down, but it might not be all that practical given the limited space.
With a boat like this (assuming it's sitting on something soft and supported at numerous points) is it going to harm it to have it sat on its side if I have to?
Many thanks
Jim
