Spider crack repair?

[Scovbert]

hey guys want to make some repairs on some spider cracks, never done a boat restoration before and looking for some advice. Heres an idea of what im working on...

 

[JimS123]

Re: Spider crack repair?

Forget about it and live with it. Those are stress cracks. In my experience if you repair them they will just come back through the repair anyway.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Spider crack repair?

Forget about it and live with it. Those are stress cracks. In my experience if you repair them they will just come back through the repair anyway.

Ayuh,.... Agreed,....

unless yer gonna strip, sand, 'n paint it, don't worry 'bout 'em...

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Spider crack repair?

some will fade or disappear with rubbing compounds, but they are generally just part of the boat as the others said.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Spider crack repair?

You gotta grind them out and then fill with gelcoat, resin and cloth or marine putty, depending on their depth. There is a good chance (but not certaintly) they will return. of course if you do all that, you will want to paint the boat to cover the repairs.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Spider crack repair?

The single cracks up on the deckside could be die ground out and filled with some tiger hair filler.

The other ones that go down the side to the rubrail needs to be ground all the way to glass..layed up with a mat or two ( depending on how much you grind off and how thick your gel is ).

Removal of the rub rail is going to be needed to access the entire repair area.

In short ..

1. Remove rubrail in that area.
2. Grind off all the gelcoat down to raw glass where the cracks are close ( they are not spider cracks but impact/fracture cracks ).
3. Fair and respray with gelcoat.

I will caution you that the curvy inside radi will be a pain to sand out .. use a roller nap with sandpaper to get that shape back in if you attempt it.

4. Install the rubrail.

Its not really that bad of a repair .. but you do have some compound radius and shaping to do. Doable for a first timer with some patience.

YD.