Urgent help/advice required - Gelcoat

[NTMID8]

Hi all,

I was doing some quick small gel coat repairs (searched info from here and net) anyways whilst doing the sanding i noticed that the gelcoat is yellow and when i sand it goes back to white. Am i damaging my gelcoat????? Is this a protective layer i have sanded off or is this dirty gelcoat which once sanded back and polished will be ok? Please any help as im stressing that i have ruined my boat

[Swanie1975]

dont stress too much - it looks like youve just sanded off the old aged yellowed surface of the gelcoat- no big drama it should polish up ok depending on what grit paper you used. remember every bit yopu sand of is making the coat thinner so dont go too far or too coarse with the sandpaper. i recently did mine with 1500 grit then a quick buff and it came up great. how old is the boat and has it ever been painted?

cheers ryan

[NTMID8]

Boat is a 1993 and as far as i know never painted. I am using 320 on the yellow stuff then 1000 lightly over the top???? I have put a super polish and wax to finish over it? Hopefully this is all correct?

What is of another big concern is that it is very thin gelcoat wise over the chines with the lightest of sandpaper enough to reveal the fibreglass, is this normal? How do i fix this?

Thanks heaps

[Swanie1975]

i wouldnt be using anything more coarse than 800 wet - the coarse you go the harder it gets to rub out the sanding scratches with finer grit and then polish to remove them. it takes longer but is much easier in the end for a better result. if the gelcoats already thru to the glass then you have to decide how much you want to spend, you could either paint it in a 2pak , antifoul (yukk) or get it regelcoated. maybe look at just doing the very bottom of the hull. search the threads, others on here might have some better ideas but steer clear of any sandpaper too coarse to save a lot of heartache later. 1200 or 1500 marks are very easy to polish out with a buff.

cheers ryan

[NTMID8]

Can anyone recommend a place in Adelaide to get this repaired?

[xjonox]

ok, i have no idea about how the pro's would fix this... but couldnt you just get some matching gel coat and hand paint it over the discoloured areas? Anyone please feel free to correct me here.

[NTMID8]

I took it to a local fibreglasser who informed me that most boats of this era where quite thin on the gel coat???? He told me there was no structual worries and showed me how to paint a few layers of the area then rub it back. It came up pretty good (not perfect) but far better than exposed fibreglass, as for the other discoloration he reckons thats pretty normal and nothing to be concerned about.