Repairing Strakes

[MASTERBrian]

Long story short, I have a few rock dings in the strakes under my 1986 Ranger 373v. I do have some past fiberglass experience, but not much with Gel Coat.

A shop quoted me $600-$800 to fix all of the damage if a cash job or said it'd be about $2500 if insurance claim. Not sure why the big difference, except they said they'd do all the leg work with the insurance co. Plan on getting a 2nd quote, but not many boat fiberglass repair shops in my area. My deductible is $250, so if it is going to near an actual grand or more to fix, that's why I pay them!! .....but if I can handle myself for ~$50 or so, no worries.

In any case, the damage looks about like the pics in this post, but there are a few more of them.

Personally, I believe I can make it look as good as before, I'm just not sure how to handle the gel coat. I plan on taking my dremel and cleaning out any loose material, but from there, do I just mix up some gel and work it in then smooth out or should I mix up some fiberglass resin for the patch and put that in first then top with a gel repair kit? Not sure if I can get fiberglass matting in the voids, but might try to throw some strands in there if need be.

Thanks

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Repairing Strakes

Get a Gelcoat repair kit from Bass Pro or any reputable Marine Repair place. Mix up the gelcoat paste and match it to your color as best you can. Clean as you suggested and wiped down with lots of Acetone. Apply the paste liberally. Sand starting with 600 grit then 800, Wet sand with 1000 and 1200. Go Fishing!!! Cost..Less than $50 bucks. Total time 2 hours.

http://www.iboats.com/Gel-Coat-Repa...6822572--session_id.747985340--view_id.165108

 

[JDA1975]

Re: Repairing Strakes

That is exactly why insurance is through the roof, the repair places feel that since it is an insurance job they can charge 4 times as much and get away with it....sadly they are right....they get away with this all the time....you should be able to fix it yourself with the repair kits like wood said with little cost

 

[MASTERBrian]

Re: Repairing Strakes

That is exactly why insurance is through the roof, the repair places feel that since it is an insurance job they can charge 4 times as much and get away with it....sadly they are right....they get away with this all the time....you should be able to fix it yourself with the repair kits like wood said with little cost

You couldn't be more right, which is why if possible I'd rather just do myself.

 

[MASTERBrian]

Re: Repairing Strakes

Ended up having some gel coat repair and am alomst finished with the repairs. I just have to crawl back under, block sand then fill any remaining low spots, sand again, wetsand, then polish out.

Matching the color has been a bit tough, but I'm hoping i'm close enough for the bottom.

After looking down there and also re-calling a past convesation, I believe there was a repair at some point that was painted, as it looks like there was some paint over some of the bottom. This brings me to the question, is it a horrible idea to use some appliance epoxy spray to lightly hit those areas, to try to blend them in a bit better. Then the other question is, in the future for repairs like this what would be wrong with using some two part epoxy to fill the holes, vs the gel coat kit. I actually have used some marine epoxy on other things and it seems it would also be a pretty close match to the bottom of my hull.

I don't have tons of experience with gel coats, but I have done a fair amount of work on the old stand up jet ski's, which were SMC and as I recall we couldn't necessarily use fiberglass resin on those, but could use epoxy resins as it was compatible with both. Is my memory correct? Of course, I always painted the ski's vs. gel coating them.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Repairing Strakes

Epoxy is fine. But...Once you use it remember there's no going back. Gelcoat does not adhere to epoxy, but epoxy adheres to just about anything. If you want to paint over it kool. but if you want to gelcoat over the epoxy. FUHGITABOUTIT!

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Repairing Strakes

There are a few reasons why Cash is King ..

You can bridge epoxy filled holes with gel.. you can NOT spray over anything other then gel with gel. Keep it paint or you have sand back to gel ( you cant blend gel to paint...you can blend paint to gel ).

YD.

 

[MASTERBrian]

Re: Repairing Strakes

This helps, thanks!!

Like I said, I believe I have most of the repairs fixed at this point, still have to crawl under there to sand and polish it out, but it's over 100* outisde right now so, I'm laying low! For the future I like the ease of being able to purchase the epoxy, the stuff is hard as a rock and baring taking it to a repair shop, I don't believe I have the proper tools to spray gel, so I don't see much advantage.