Gel Coat Stress Crack Repairs
 

I looked at a boat which had a lot of gel coat stress cracks which were repaired by grinding out the cracks, filling them, and repainting the entire area with Imron. Is this a permanent repair? Won't the same cracks just come back in the Imron?

Michael

Depends on whether they glassed them or just used the paste type repair. If it's got that many cracks I'd be looking at another boat.

Gel coat cracks are cause by stress in the body of the boat at that particular area. You can fix cracks all day but if you do not fix the problem underneath they can come back.

pretty much it. also it really depends on what was used to fill the area after it was ground down. many times they do return because of underlying problems or excessive rough water use.

I just got a lesson in gelcoat as I had my throttles moved and a few dings filled in.

The more important factor is the gelcoat itself, specifically its thickness. Fiberglass does have the ability to flex. The gelcoat above it needs to be able to flex as well. I don't remember the exact .-mil specs, but too thick, and the gelcoat will not flex, and it just cracks. Too thin, and the gelcoat will crack and flake away. Its a fine science.

Speeddoc here on OSO taught me a lot over the last 2 weeks. He did some great work on my boat.

Gelcoat has a military spec for thickness?

aprox. .010" to .020" is preferred

millimeters! See you get rid of the AT, and everything goes to pot. :D

My pot days went the way of tequila :D

This was on a mid-90's Skater, and I've been told they get a lot of gel coat stress cracks. Stay away from them?

When would you re-gel coat a boat, rather than fill and paint?

Michael