what to do about hairline cracks on top gelcoat

bandit86

Banned
Joined
Nov 17, 2005
Messages
531
I see little hairline cracks all over the boat, nothing big just looks like someone had a wild party on the boat before they sold it. Before painting on gelcoating, whats the best way to take care of theses, sand down to fibreglass, or just feather edge a bit and gelcoat over?
 

ondarvr

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Apr 6, 2005
Messages
11,527
Re: what to do about hairline cracks on top gelcoat

It needs to be sanded down to the where the crack starts, it may be in the gel coat, or it could be in the glass, you won't know until you route them out. Then they need to be filled with something very strong, if you are painting you can use epoxy and glass fibers, if you are going to use gel coat, then you need to use something compatible with it. The problem is that to keep the old cracks from returning, or new ones from starting, you need to find out why they started in the begining. It's normally from flexing, so you need to stiffen the structure to stop the cracking, this may move the stress to another location and start cracks in that area.
 
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