87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

[ddlaz]

Had a mishap last week where the waves were just too much for the boat and the stern went under the dock and hit a lip.
Now, there is a big 2x3" chunk of gelcoat missing down to the fiberglass. The fiberglass looks great, no obvious cracks or structural damage.
Another issue is that the gelcoat has metal flakes in it.
What is the best way to approach this repair?
I imagine I'd scuff up and peel off any loose gelcoat,
apply black gelcoat paste
sand down a bit
paint with automotive clear coat mixed with flakes (preferably clear gelcoat mixed with flakes)

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

You probably need to post pix. Metal flake damage repairs can be tricky, esp on 26yr old flake gelcoat.

Use the advanced search from the resto forum homepage: metal flake gelcoat repair. You should get lots of hits, several fairly recent threads & discussions.

 

[ddlaz]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

Yeah I figured it'd be tricky, especially getting it to match.

I've painted bikes with metal flakes and have read that most metal flake gelcoats just have flakes mixed in with clear gelcoat.

Plan is to build the gelcoat back up with black, then spray the rest with multiple layers of clear/silver metal flake gelcoat. Easier said than done of course.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

Having experience w/ metal flake paint may make this less challenging for you then some (most?). Esp if you've shot 2-part auto paints before.

More general pix of the gelcoat might be good too.

'Normal' save my flake gelcoat threads & questions deal w/ chalky/faded gel where you can feel the flake like sandpaper. Yours doesn't look that bad in the 1 close up pix. But it's kind of hard to tell.

 

[ddlaz]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

Yeah, almost all of the "help me" threads were regarding faded, or gouged gelcoats. I couldn't find a metal flake repair thread that detailed repairing chipped-off-down-to-fiberglass gelcoat. My gelcoat is in, in my opinion, great condition. I just happened to have a love tap with a dock that smashed it to bits.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

Send a PM to ondarvr. He knows quite a bit about gelcoat and might be able to advise you on this repair. I think you have the general idea pretty much in order. Get the area prepped by removing all the loose stuff, sand, clean with acetone, apply the base gelcoat color and then the multiple layers of clear with the flake. As stated matching will be the hard part.

Best of luck.

 

[GT1000000]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

Ouch and Bummer!
In this thread, "Friscoboater" did some amazing and excellent gel coat repairs and color matching...
http://forums.iboats.com/boat-resto...ion-thread-585518.html?highlight=friscoboater
Starting some where about post#400 and working up from there...

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

This is the link to the Flake Gelcoat Repair video...
Project Carlson CVX-18 - Gel Coat Repair, Patching and blending - YouTube

 

[ddlaz]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

This is the link to the Flake Gelcoat Repair video...
Project Carlson CVX-18 - Gel Coat Repair, Patching and blending - YouTube

Yeah I found that video on youtube last night. Pretty good info.

There's not much colormatching to be done, silver flakes and clear gelcoat seemed to match last night.

I haven't had time to do the full repair yet so I was just testing things. I couldn't find large flakes to match the size of the boat's so I went to joanns and bought a jar of their silver glitter.
Mixed it in with the clear gel coat mixture and sprayed a cardboard panel. The good news is that the glitter (polyethylene terephlate-PET) is compatible with the gelcoat. It didnt melt or bleed color, maybe because it's silver? The bad news is that the glitter is hexagonal instead of the square shape. Hardly noticeable unless you look at it closely. I don't know how it'll last in sun though.

Hopefully over the weekend, I can fix the corner.

One thing I'm wondering is if I should just build up the area with a black gel paste first or build it in layers of the regular gel coat. Anyone got an idea?

 

[GT1000000]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

If you have any automotive paint supply houses in the neighborhood, they might have the glitter you need...

 

[ddlaz]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

If you have any automotive paint supply houses in the neighborhood, they might have the glitter you need...

Checked them all. The biggest they carry is a ditzler big flake which Is 0.025" and the boat flakes measured to roughly 0.05 nominally.

 

[GT1000000]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

Have you looked into "House of Kolor"...Mail order in most cases...

 

[ondarvr]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

The base color under the clear can be very important in getting the look right, it can influence flake color drastically, and it looks like there is a blue and a black in the repair area. Size, shape and color of the flake will make a big difference too.

To get it right you need to match the base color as close as possible, then flake size, shape and color, the amount of flake added to the clear will also change the look. Testing needs to be done to get it right.

First comes the base colored gel coat, then clear mixed with flake, then a few passes of clear over the top so you have enough product to sand down and buff. There is also the issue of sanding down into the surrounding area and exposing the flake which can make it look blotchy.

Do not add surface wax to clear gel coat, it can turn it cloudy, you will need to use PVA to create a tack free surface, or wait longer and possibly wipe the surface down with acetone.

Repair guys typically don't like to do these because rounding up the right supplies and then experimenting to get the look right can be difficult and time consuming. And when someone pays that much to have it done they want the repair to be almost invisible, which it rarely is to the owner, so not everyone is happy.

You can get about 70 to 80% of the right look somewhat easily, so if you just want it to look better and be less noticeable it shouldn?t be that hard.

Here?s a supplier of flake, there are several online Roth Metal Flake Home

 

[ddlaz]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

I thought I quoted from my phone's browser... Guess not.

To GT1000000 - Yes. I looked through their color cards and their biggest is. 015.

 

[ddlaz]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

Good info. Roths largest was. 025 too. Looked at theirs and it wasn't big enough.

 

[ddlaz]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

Do not add surface wax to clear gel coat, it can turn it cloudy, you will need to use PVA to create a tack free surface, or wait longer and possibly wipe the surface down with acetone.

Possibly? My other option to avoid a cloudy clear is to put on cellophane but that might wrinkle and require sanding. I've never sprayed pva. I assume you just overspray pva in the area?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

It's kinda weird stuff. When the PVA (Poly Vinyl Alchohol) dries it forms a thin vinyl like layer over the gel that you can actually peel off the surface. Most just use warm sudsy water to wash it off, and follow up with an Acetone wipe down.

 

[ddlaz]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

Could I just let it air dry enough until it gets gelled a bit to the point where cellophane wouldn't cause wrinkles and cover? or would that be too late?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

You shoot the PVA right when the Gel starts to set so I guess you could try the plastic then too

 

[ddlaz]

Re: 87 Kingfisher FS gel coat broken off to fiberglass repair

The cloudy clear gel coat sounds better and better ....