Radar Arch Cracking

psubill78

psubill78

Member
Jul 20, 2011
624
Lake Michigan (IL/WI border, Southport Marina E Do
Boat Info
'05 Meridian 368 MY, '11 Baltik BA95 Dinghy. Still a Sea Ray lover at heart!
Engines
8.1L HO Mercruiser (840 horse), 10kw Kohler Genset, Torqueedo 1003 for Dinghy
I've got 2 cracks in my radar arch, at the curved section, they are each about 4-6" long. It seems surface.

Got a quote for nearly $2k to repair it. Does this seem insane?

Any idea where I can figure out what a new radar arch would cost, and if that would make more sense?

The guy said he's never seen a crack in this manner, it's almost as if there was a manufacturing defect where they put the 2 pieces together. Note the canvas and the track for the canvas is removed, but you can clearly see the crack.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/638/photomvq.jpg/

1998 Sundancer 310
 
If you could buy an arch, which you can't, it would cost around $10K... Yes the quote is too high... I had 5 spots fixed last year and it cost $250... $2K is too high, iMO... How did these crack happen?
 
rcknecht said:
If you could buy an arch, which you can't, it would cost around $10K... Yes the quote is too high... I had 5 spots fixed last year and it cost $250... $2K is too high, iMO... How did these crack happen?
Click to expand...

NO idea. It was smaller when we bought the boat, however, it did grow a little this season, thus my concern...
 
You could try and do it yourself. It is not that hard, just takes some time. Grind off the gelcoat and make sure there is no cracks in the underlying glass. If so, grind down a little further on the cracks unill they are gone. Put epoxy on the exposed area and then lay your glass over the epoxy and roll to get the bubbles out and flat. Put a couple of layers down. Then sand smooth. Use primer paint to see where you may have to build up and get it smooth. You can contact Sea Ray and they can tell you the gelcoat maker and the mix number if you want a real good match. The guy was expensive on the coat, but I never could match gel goat on my own. Once it is ready to spray with the gelcoat, wax all the good gelcoat and tape around the spot for over spray. You can get these little sprayers that have their own propellant for about $15 and can get the recharge for about 8. Works good with gelcoat.
 
Last edited:
Ka1oxd said:
You could try and do it yourself. It is not that hard, just takes some time. Grind off the gelcoat and make sure there is no cracks in the underlying glass. If so, grind down a little further on the cracks unill they are gone. Put epoxy on the exposed area and then lay your glass over the epoxy and roll to get the bubbles out and flat. Put a couple of layers down. Then sand smooth. Use primer paint to see where you may have to build up and get it smooth. You can contact Sea Ray and they can tell you the gelcoat maker and the mix number if you want a real good match. The guy was expensive on the coat, but I never could match gel goat on my own. Once it is ready to spray with the gelcoat, wax all the good gelcoat and tape around the spot for over spray. You can get these little sprayers that have their own propellant for about $15 and can get the recharge for about 8. Works good with gelcoat.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I have the ability to do it myself.... the repair guy said that they would be removing the coat and fiberglass on it, and redoing it all to ensure the cracking didn't continue..
 
I thought the gel coat cracks are generaly caused by stress on the fiberglass? I would think with the canvas pulling on the arch all the time plus boarding the boat and holding on to it would cause some stress on the arch. To fix the area corectly you would have to reinforce the area... problem is you may end up chassing the cracks. For a 98 boat id say its normal. I have a 89 with a few small cracks but I chock it up to age... am I wrong to think that?
 
When I got my boat 3 years ago, it had major cracks at the exhaust tubes. I did the repairs and it working fine now for 3 seasons. There are a few videos on the internet about it. It could be just that the gelcoat was too thick and it cracked. Here is one, but I have seen others that was better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeJWu_N68Bs
 
Those do not look like stress cracks to me. I think there is a cold bond........i.e. the inner and outer halves of the arch are not bonded together.....that is allowing the inner and outer halves to flex separately from each other. If that is the case, this will be substantially more than a stress crack fix to the gelcoat. To complicate the repair further, there are curves surfaces everywhere and no flat areas to work from, so the repaired area won't be very easy to fair and finish from a cosmetic standpoint.

Be careful trying to do this one yourself, unless you have some fiberglass repair experience.
 
So I met with the actual glass guy yesterday, who gave more detail over the storage owners....

He did say that he suspected it from the 2 halves not flexing properly... and said it would be essentially grinding out the old stuff, and reinforncing it and repairing it.

Their glass work is stellar from what I've seen on other boats they've done. The $2k price did shock me though, but I'm having the track for the canvas replaced and resealed as well, so now is the time to do it..
 
Oh geese... I missed the picture... wow yeah that's not a stress crack like I was talking about..
 
You know what.................this is worth a call to Sea Ray Customer Service. This is a rare defect and was probably caused by something during the assembly process. Nothing you or a previous owner did caused it. Sea Ray may be willing to cover the cost of the repair or split it with you as a good will warranty repair. Be prepared for a refusal, however, because this isn't the hull and this isn't a part of the boats structure, and you are well past the normal warranty period.

Be sure to do several things.......call Sea Ray before repairs are begun so photos can be sent to customer service. You also need to stress that you love your boat, but you just want them to know that you are extremely dissappointed in the quality of this aspect of its construction. Be prepared for them to ask you what you expect them to do.....to which you answer, "I'd like for you to cover the cost of the repair because this is a problem Sea Ray caused and is one I did nothing to either cause or make worse."


Good luck with it...........
 
I am already in touch with Sea Ray on the issue, originally looking for a replacement arch for pricing comparison.

I'd be stunned if they would do anything, however, anything is worth a shot
 
How was this resolved? This season we found a crack in the base of our arch - dealer says it should be under warranty. SR says it's not warranty since it is not "structural". I asked what does "structural" constitute - they said that it won't come off. I said can they guarantee that without looking at it (they have pictures) they said "no". So, they need to look at it to determine if its warranty, but won't cover costs to look at it? I told the dealer I'll cover it - but he agrees SR is failing on this. Anyone else's opinions?
 
Sea Ray did nothing, even though it was clearly a defect in the fiberglass manufacturing.

I had a local shop do the fiberglass repair. Ended up costing just over $2000 to fix it..
 
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