chipped area under waterline

[R.N.]

Hi , I have been reading this forum but while i get more knowledge I also have more questions .
Please help me out to do it right the first time.

I have a chipped area of the hull about 3"x1" under the water line , gelcoat is gone and i can see the fiberglass . it doesn't feel soft .
Hull is cream in colour . And the boat is on the trailer most of the time . I have a chip from gelcoat if i need to take it somewhere for colour matching.
But i wouldnt mind doing it with some resin and paint it over .


What would be the best way to fix it from the durability and look? I dont mind the elbow grease as long as the job will last and look good .
Please let me know specific product I should buy .
Thank you in advance .

 

[Brian0013]

Acitone /chop strains of fiberglass/ resin and hardener.thats how I'm going to do mine .or if u don't need strength they make a lite weight filler with fiber strains in it.just for Smc n fiberglass .sand n paint

 

[boatman37]

i had a similar area on the keel from the PO beaching it. i removed all loose flaking area and sanded the edges and used spectrum gel paste to fill it and smoothed. did it prior to last season and when i had it out over the winter looked like new. and yes, make sure to clean it with acetone before applying the gel paste. IIRC my chip was about 1/8" deep

 

[JASinIL2006]

It almost looks like there might have been a void between the gelcoat layer and the mat layer. If you snake a thin wire between the gelcoat and the fiberglass (on the right side of the picture, just under the chine), how far does it go? Before covering the hole, I'd be inclined to try and fill any void with some thickened resin so you don't have a similar hole develop adjacent to the one you're patching now.

 

[Woodonglass]

Here's how I'd do the repair. Remove all the loose gelcoat sand the edges to feather them towards the center, use poly resin and apply it liberally to the area. Apply a patch of 1.5 CSM that's shaped to fit the area but make it 2" smaller. Apply more resin and make the next patch 1" larger than the first 3rd patch is made from 1708 bias and is cut to fit the entire area. Finally one more layer of CSM to fit the area All layers should be done at the same time do not let the resin kick before the next patch cover the area wit plastic and it will cure faster and it won't be tacky to the touch Finally sand with 60 grit and apply 4-5 coats of Gelcoat again doing the next coat before the previous one has kicked off

 

[Scott Danforth]

iboats sells spectrum gel coat repair kits that are the factory colors.

http://www.iboats.com/Boat-Gel-Coat-Repair/dm/view_id.246645

not sure I would go thru as much work as woodonglass, however i would grind about 1" area of gel, feathering the edges, use 2 layers of CSM and then gel. wet sand and buff to finish

 

[R.N.]

Thanks everyone for input .
Scott I have at hand some 3M fiberglass repair kit with resin , hardner and some wooven fiber glass mesh .Is this OK for first layer ? will gel coat from Spectrum stick to this ? How thick/thin gel coat layer has to be ?