Small hull repair

Fscott4

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Sep 8, 2022
Messages
86
The boat made hard contact with the dock when teaching wife how to softly approach the dock. She brought it in perfectly and I stepped off with the lines, she gunned it and all hell broke loose. Thankfully the damage in the picture is all that happened and other than rope burns on my hands nobody was hurt. I am capable of doing this repair but I don't want to have to invest in a bunch of gallon containers of expensive product I will never use again. I am looking for the most economical way to do this repair (other than blue duct tape or Krylon). The boat is a 91 stingray GPZ and its really in excellent condition for its age and this damage is really disappointing. The larger gash is into the fiberglass but not very deep at all, the second smaller one is a chip out of the gel coat.
I have worked with fiberglass in the past but never gel coat.
Any direction from you folks will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Fred
 

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todhunter

Canoeist
Joined
Sep 15, 2020
Messages
1,252
You'll need to spend about $100-$200 in materials. Get some natural gelcoat, cabosil, and some gelcoat tints. Mixing the natural gelcoat and tint to match your boat will be the hardest part. Tint a smallish batch of uncatalyzed gelcoat. Apply some clear packing tape next to the repair area and then apply the uncatalyzed gelcoat on top of the tape and allow it to dry. Evaluate your color match, tweak, and repeat till you're happy.

Next, grind out the damage, thicken up you gelcoat with cabosil to make it more of a paste then add the catalyst, mask off the area, and apply the gelcoat. Pull tape about 10 minutes in. Sand to shape, then wet sand and buff.

I started the repair on my bow last year and got it "good enough". I intend to make it look much better this fall. See here.
 

Fscott4

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Sep 8, 2022
Messages
86
So you don't think layering and sanding fiberglass will be necessary? I'm all for a putty and sand repair!
This caught my eye on amazon.

Marine Coat One Iso/Npg Marine Gel Coat White with Wax with MEKP Catalyst for Hardening, Gel Coat Repair Kit for Boats, Fiberglass and More​

 

Fscott4

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Sep 8, 2022
Messages
86
I looks like this kit will have everyting but the cabosil (filler).
 

todhunter

Canoeist
Joined
Sep 15, 2020
Messages
1,252
I would just buy from US Composites. Less chance of it having set on a shelf for over a year somewhere.
 
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