Fiberglass expert advice needed!!

[kmiller]

Well my week is getting better day by day... Today I removed the trim tabs off my boat, to repair the rotted transom. Well long story short, the siclone pulled a section of the gell coat off, down to the mat. What is the best way to fix this. Thanks Kyle

[RedDog382]

Someone did this to my 311 a few years ago. I had a local fiberglass repair shop repair the gel coat for around $400. Good Luck!

[kmiller]

Would like to know what process to fix, and products if poss. I was thinking I could maby resin the mat to re-seal and put a layer of Marine-tex as a top coat.????????

[timewarp]

As long as you plan on replacing the trim tabs you could just use WEST System epoxy to reseal that area and you wouldn't need to worry about color matching, if not replacing the tabs you will need to match the Gelcoat.
Their website has a lot of information, you will need to use their products or something simular to rebuild your transom,
http://www.westsystem.com/

[syclone]

check the integrity of the remaining laminate: blisters? delaminaton? signs of osmosis? cracks?

grind off all compromised material with a coarse disc in an angle grinder (be careful not to remove too much or get too deep but be radical, what has to be done has to be done), be sure to extend to an area where the gelcoat is still intact.

repair with epoxy (better adhesion and water esistance than polyester) and reinforce the first coat with a patch of light weave fibreglass (80 grams per square meter for example, sorry i can only do metric...) that is a bit larger than your cleaned area.

if you had to grind down deeper here and there which may give a very uneven surface, make a putty from epoxy and chopped fibers to level the surface before applying the glass or you will have an undesirably high resin content and probably blisters. also, epoxy with chopped fibers is clear or in whatever color you give it; ready made putties often have unfortunate colors which may be hard to cover with a thin gelcoat (be it epoxy or polyester).

there are pigments available to color also epoxy to match your gelcoat.

let the epoxy cure for at least 24 hours (depends on the product) or it may be hard to sand.

check the rest of the boat for spider cracks in the gelcoat, anyway, even in areas where you wouldnt suspect them (everywhere).

good luck

peter
austria