Gelcoat Repair advice

[boatrboy]

I had a minor mishaps last year in Block Island where I hit an anchor. I have included a pic of the small chips that need repair.

Any advice on how hard it will be to repair this myself??

Hope you are out there Rob...

 

[Dave S]

That's probably something you can repair yourself. Here's a company that stocks gel coat that will match yours. http://www.spectrumcolor.com/ There is also some good "how to" stuff on their web site. :thumbsup:

 

[wish2fish]

a sticker would look good there! Try this link for some info.

DIY network link

Here's a good one!

 

[jrirvine1]

I have repaired damage very similar to this due to an inexperienced fork lift operator. When the repair area is on an outside curved edge, it requires a little more finesse to insure the same radius is matched, but can be a DIY job.
Cut out all loose and ragged areas and feather the damaged area into good part.
Get matching gel coat repair from Searay, they typically stock this.
Work repair into area with plastic spatula – keep slightly higher.
Using a block of wood and various grits of paper, sand down to the existing curve. Do not power sand, this will remove too much material and you will loose the shape.
Sand all the way down to about 320 (wet paper) to remove all scratches.
Use buffing compound with an electric drill and a very soft buffing wheel. (This works well on small areas, especially corners.
Careful here, as buffing is one step that can be overdone and cause the repair not to match. This has something to do with the heat generated by the buffer, causing the patch to harden differently than the adjacent gelcoat and typically turning it darker.
After buffing – wax on wax off by hand.

Good luck!

 

[RobF300]

jrir's advice sounds good-

i know you said is this a DIY job, and it can be.
Letting the yard do it is not even a $80-$100 job.

 

[boatrboy]

.... Letting the yard do it is not even a $80-$100 job.

Then it is probably not worth me trying to save 100 bucks!
Thanks Rob - I will bring the pics to my local guy and hope he feels the same way you do. If not, I will print all this stuff out and do it myself.

BTW - I went to the Spectrum website and there were several types of white called out for 1999, so how do I figure out which color I have?

Thanks again.

 

[sbw1]

I have a small collection of copper pipes, different diameters and about 3" long and various pieces of wood working trim that make handy sanding blocks for these kinds of radius dings. Broom handle pieces are also useful. In our marina these repairs would be around $600. They are very good at making repairs but not worth that kind of money. This is an easy DIY project not too different from repairing small dings in drywall.

 

[RobF300]

I cant for the life of me figure out how that would cost $600 to fix, its less then an hours work for a "pro", and thats with getting the tools and materials together and coming back a second time for the sanding and polishing.

$125 tops with the yard taking its commission from a outside contractor.

 

[sbw1]

My marina is very expensive when it comes to these kinds of repairs. They do outstanding work but over charge for this stuff because they can. That's why I learned to do these repairs myself. Many people are intimidated by gel coat fades, feel they will screw it up, etc. As you know, it's not that difficult. I'm sure it takes me longer than a person who does these things all the time, but the results are the same.

 

[RobF300]

your marina is run by a bunch of crooks :grin:

 

[Petep]

Rob, where are you located? If it's in Fla. that is the type of dollars that that repair would get. In SBW's defense, in MI. you would not believe what they THINK their work is worth....

 

[RobF300]

Long Island, New York

not exactly the cheapest place to conduct business

 

[Petep]

This one would be $250 min. in my parts. I would do this myself also because it's only worth $80.

 

[RobF300]

how could people sleep at night charging that much to fix that?

 

[fwebster]

That little boo-boo would be an hour's labor plus materials.......figure $90 to $120...... where we are and the fiberglass guy is not a blacksmith but is as good as they come.

You are dealing with crooks in real need of some competition if this is a $600 repair............

 

[boatrboy]

I hope you are right Rob - my guess is Long Island and SW CT are comparable. I hope to bring the pics next week to a glass guy. Last year I asked the shop at my marina to look at it and they never did. They mentioned that if I brought the boat to them in the shop, they would spray it and it would be cheaper than if they repaired it in the water, 200 yards away. I had no idea how much it would cost and I was hoping they would walk to the dock and give me some idea. Maybe they got busy and forgot- who knows :smt017 .
I will see what they say next week -otherwise I will try one other place before attempting this myself.
Thanks again for your input.

 

[sbw1]

Maybe they charge more for fiber glass work because slips and inside heated storgage are relatively cheap by comparison to what seem to be going rates on the east coast.

 

[RobF300]

spray it in the shop?

it requires a $3 disposable preval aerosol sprayer if that.

This might be a case of a shop not really knowing how to keep things simple for people.

If it cost that much to fix things like that no one would fix them.

Guy could walk that 200 yards with a milk crate, battery dremel, roll of masking tape, 2 pieces of sandpaper, and fix it.
The shop is on site so that eliminates having to drive a truck over there.

Maybe they need a new foreman :smt017

Small repairs like that are on the bottom of the list for marinas, safety issues and people who cant use thier boats are on top of the list.

 

[sbw1]

Sounds like you may not understand the west Michigan market. Our service costs are really quite low relative to larger metro areas. Yes, small jobs do fall to the bottom of the list at many places. That's really poor service when you think about it. Slip fees are lower here than many other parts of the country, plus they are clean and much nicer than what I have seen in Florida and other areas. Marinas here can not count on bread and butter items like risers, manifolds, impellers, t-stats, etc. because those are not routine service items due to our clean water. We can lock in heated storage at rates below other areas in the country for ten years. Slips, same thing. We can work on our boats in heated comfort or pay the staff to do things for us. There is a bigger picture than what a marina charges for a small ding. Big or small, customers don't have the feeling that they have to pull the boat to get the guy to look at a problem. Heck, they even come to my home to do oil changes so I don't have to move my boat. I used to live in Chicago for 10 years, so I'm pretty familiar with the type of "service" you describe. We see many owners from Chicago moving their boats here for winter and even summer storage. I notice that the guy who posted this thread and can get the work done for a $100 is not having much luck getting anyone to even look at it. Much of the enjoyment in boating comes from having reliable, friendly help when you need it, so you can go boating when you want to. We have that in Michigan. It's expensive, but isn't that the nature of this hobby? People who are always trying to get something on the cheap are usually the ones who complain about the service.

 

[RobF300]

im going to move to michigan then with a milk crate, do scratches and dings and clean up! :smt043

il be RICH I tell you, RICH

muhahahahha! :smt101