Gel coat/paint gun

[artificialreef]

Hi folks, new poster to this forum. I have a bunch of fiberglass spider cracks all over the place (mostly in the deck area, but alot of other places too) on my gel coat on a 1983 Tiara continental 26ft that i just bought on the cheap. From what i have read it is maybe because the gelcoat was sprayed on too thick. My first inclination is to use a dremel with a cutting tool on it and grind out the 1000 or so cracks and body fill them in. Then give it a light spray of something.

Questions
1. is there a better way to make this look respectable. The original deck has a nice protruded nub look to it. Would hate to loose that. But the 1000 crack fill job seems insane.
2. I have 2 cars that need paint jobs and was wondering if there is a paint gun that would work for whatever you recommend spraying in question 1 (gellcoat?) and painting the cars too?

 

[artificialreef]

Re: Gel coat/paint gun

Actually i dont think i was descriptive enough. They are not really spider cracks but full blown gelcoat splitting in a thousand places. What the heck do you call that? Please dont say a planter or basketcase.

 

[oops!]

Re: Gel coat/paint gun

hi....wtelcome to the dry dock !

the cracks you see are called crazing.....and they are easy to fix...and re gelcoating the boat is just out of the question.....for a gazillion reasons......but let me just say its not worth it.

to fix the gellcoat.....just take your dremmel and "v" out the cracks...(yes...each crack) clean with aceitone. then fill with gellcoat paste......and then sand !...

you can even color the gellcoat to match.

as far as a gun......just get the biggest tip you can. but if you are using gellpaste....you dont use a gun

 

[legoman67]

Re: Gel coat/paint gun

yeah, or you could sand the entire boat down and paint with an enamel paint(there is special marine grade paints that are designed for fibreglass hulls). you can spray it on with a normal spray gun, but just like cars, prepping a boat for paint is 95% of the work.... and is basically the same process as you would use for a car.(sand,fill, repeat x1000) my dad did this to his boat, and i recently just did a car restore and it is a LOT of WORK and TIME.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Gel coat/paint gun

I promise not to use the words planter or basket case.

You need to figure out why it cracked in the first place, thick gel coat, poor support, thin glass, etc.

There is no way to fix it and keep the old texture because from the sound of it too much of the surface needs to be repaired. Just filling the cracks won't solve the problem, it will only hide it until it gets stressed again, then all the cracks will return. You need to fix the original problem that caused the cracks to appear in the first place.

 

[TFHTECH]

Re: Gel coat/paint gun

use flex additive in the paint just like you would on a plastic bumper sanding and painting is the way to

 

[legoman67]

Re: Gel coat/paint gun

You need to figure out why it cracked in the first place, thick gel coat, poor support, thin glass, etc.

There is no way to fix it and keep the old texture because from the sound of it too much of the surface needs to be repaired. Just filling the cracks won't solve the problem, it will only hide it until it gets stressed again, then all the cracks will return. You need to fix the original problem that caused the cracks to appear in the first place.

good point, need some pictures of these cracks, if they are indeed from stress then that will need to be addressed, if they are just from that evil thing in the sky then 'covering up' is all that you need to do.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Gel coat/paint gun

Actually the sun alone won't cause cracking, it will cause gel coat that is too thick to crack though, it will also speed the cracking of gel coat that has been either under or over catalyzed. These conditions must be resolved before any paint job will hold up, otherwise the cracks will return quickly.