What do I use to repair chips in gelcoat and keel rubbing?

[charleso]

My wife is the greatest. She bought us a 1984 Bonito 16ft with a '98 50hp 'Rude on it. I drive OTR and she called me last Tuesday and told me about it. Have it at a tech getting a clean bill of health right now. It has chips and a couple of scraps through the gel coat up to the glass. The keel is rubbed(by the tilt latch on the trailer---I have already added a couple of rollers to prevent this-will probably weld the tilt shut and grind that aggravating pin/bracket off. My tech recommended a two part putty that comes in sticks that you cut off the amount you need and blend it to activate it. Have used several different epoxy/putty sticks like this in the past, just never on a boat hull. Anybody have any ideas about a product I could use below the waterline like this?

 

[Grits]

Re: What do I use to repair chips in gelcoat and keel rubbing?

Congrads on your new boat.

You can repair it with gelcoat. Do a search on gelcoat repair.

grits

 

[azlakes]

Re: What do I use to repair chips in gelcoat and keel rubbing?

... if its to the glass and exposed I was informed to use a product called Marine Tex

 

[erikgreen]

Re: What do I use to repair chips in gelcoat and keel rubbing?

Yes, white marine tex is what you want. Trying to mold gel coat to fix a chip would be a pain, and probably wouldn't be that durable (gel coat is tinted poly resin, which is hard to get to stick to repairs).

Marine tex is epoxy based, spreads like frosting, and hardens like rock. Good stuff.

Erik

 

[gcboat]

Re: What do I use to repair chips in gelcoat and keel rubbing?

http://www.marinetex.com/

 

[oops!]

Re: What do I use to repair chips in gelcoat and keel rubbing?

if the glass fibers are exposed you need to grind off the aflicted area.. two inches all the way around......you may see really white fibers...thats rotted fiberglass...grind it off...it wont accept resin.......apply filler...and coat....done....the whole boat can be done very fast after you get a little better at this....you can actually whip thru it....

cheers
oops

 

[charleso]

Re: What do I use to repair chips in gelcoat and keel rubbing?

Thanks for the tip about the marinetex putty. I will give it a try and post how well it turns out. I am wondering has anyone got any input on the Keelguard products? Are they as durable and well made as they advertise? I like the concept, but would hate to know I forked out that much cash for something that wont last.

 

[redfury]

Re: What do I use to repair chips in gelcoat and keel rubbing?

I think the most important part of the keel guards is preparation. You need to make sure that the area the adhesive is going to bond to is properly prepared.

Beyond that, I plan to get a Keel Guard after seeing what happened to my buddies boat from beaching ( not to mention the occasional launch without a dock, but plenty of rock to come in contact with ).

 

[gcboat]

Re: What do I use to repair chips in gelcoat and keel rubbing?

Yes, the Keel Guard works as advertised. Again, as redfury mentions the prep is a very critical step.