Jojoegen

does anyone have any idea the general cost to get rid of stress cracks on a 19 foot pickle fork and re-gelcoat it. I assume that the whole complete hall has to be sanded down past the stress cracks and re-gelcoat and I have no idea whether to consider buying one like that or not any help would certainly be appreciated. Thank you

bajaman

It would be crucial to understand if they are just in the gel coat or if indeed the laminate has damage, also.

Jojoegen

Thanks Bajaman, they are just in the gelcoat

phragle

iTrader: (3)

can you have the gel matched??

Too Stroked

I think you will find that it's pretty rare for just the gelcoat to crack. Generally speaking, something's moving around underneath the gelcoat and that's what causes the cracks to appear.

Indy

Not necessarily, dark colors adjacent to light, tight radius where there's build-up.

Wally

iTrader: (1)

From all the stuff i've seen on boats its "usually" easy to tell whats causing it.....if its an impact, you will have a center point where the stress was highest and the cracks will be tightest around there and radiate outward getting more spread out as it goes. And those are "most" times circular, but i've seen them parallel to each other as well...but again they start out tight and get farther apart the further away you get from the point of impact.
Flexing/movement will usually show as long cracks running parallel to the others, and (again depending on whats going on) they are spaced somewhat evenly.
The last boat i looked at had a doozy in stress cracks....apparently the guy came into the dock too hot and hit the side of the boat against a piling....hit it right where the firewall/bulkhead was glassed in behind the back seat. On one side there were cracks all along the rub rail that looked like a spider web.....on the other side of the boat where the firewall wanted to come through the side from the energy transfer....it looked like long vertical cracks from the rub rail down to the chine along the attachment point

I don't think I've ever seen and gel cracks that didn't have a reason underneath causing it. Could it be some defective gel? maybe but i would imagine if that was the case it would be cracking and peeling off or flaking...
Another thing you can try to do is shine a bright work light from the outside and look on the backside....if its very thin and a lot of light comes through its probably just from the boat flexing in that spot....if you can see cracks all the way through the glass, may be more to investigate the cause

I'd take some pics of the areas and whats underneath and post them up and see if Glassdave has any comments on it.

hogie roll

I had executive marine in St. Petersburg fix every crack I could find. If I recall he only charged like 300-500 Maybe? I remember being surprised how reasonable it was. Some of the best money I’ve spent on the boat TBH. I was having other work done so I don’t remember the line item cost.

They weren’t bad or prolific but if you’re OCD you will always see them and it drove me nuts.

I don’t suspect any structural issues, seems to be something that just happens over time with normal wear and tear. It’s most likely due to temperature fluctuations, I think fiberglass and gel coat have a little bit different expansion rates. They usually formed in some edge or corner feature.

I did read a comment someone made that the gel coat of the early 2000s era hardened over time so cracks are more common in that era of boats.

CDShack

Cracks in Gelcoat are most often superficial, particularly the ones where the gelcoat 'rises' at the crack, indicating it is a gelcoat age issue. Don't get me wrong, if you have a myriad of cracks in one location spanning out, it's structural. But as Hogie mentioned, fiberglass can flex and gelcoat just gets more brittle the more it sees the sun. I worked at Laser Boats in the R&D department as a kid (19) when Roarke Summerfield designed the boats. He had a 'minimum' radius for corners, otherwise, the Gelcoat would crack. These were outboard boats and we had to 'redesign' the transom mount because it had two radius' (one up and the other into the splashwell) creating a square corner, and it cracked after a few runs with a huge motor. We rounded the corner in the mold and all was good.

As long as they aren't crazy deep or long, or there are a bunch together--grind and regelcoat!