bcarpman

I'm looking for advice on making hull bottom repairs. I'd like to give it a try myself just for personal knowledge/satisfaction. I find that once I've done something once, I have a lot more confidance paying someone else in the future.

I've been going through tons of threads on this forum, and I see little tidbits here and there, but none that really tell me what I need to know.

I'm a pretty experienced composites guy (Built entire race car bodies, molds etc, and have obviously used gel coat as the first layup step), but have never done boat work, nor made any repairs in any of my work (anything I've done before goes in the trash as soon as it's damaged in any way.

Can someone give me a rundown on how to repair a gouge in the bottom of a gel coated boat where performance is an issue (want it restored so that I don't lose speed).

Specific questions I have are:

If I need to re-glass, how do I assure good adhesion to the old glass? Should I stick with polyester resin, or would it help to use epoxy? Do I sand away more of the old glass/gel so that I have a bigger surface area to adhear to?

After I have the repair sanded flush, what steps do I take to finish coat it? Do I prime then epoxy paint, clear coat, or is there a spray on gel coat that will integrate into the surrounding gell coat and be just as durable? What products should I use?

Any references to web articles, or books would be appreciated as well.

Thanks

Bottoms Up

Send me some photo's and I can help here.


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Bill