Hi all,

After reading on this forum for a bit I've brought my first boat. This is my first foray into boating and fishing. It was cheap and cheap for a reason. I've got the steering/controls and engine side of things coming together, the electrical appears to generally work but needs further investigation for anything that looks like it may fail. The hull is where I'm up to now and would appreciate some direction on what I would consider minor bumps and scrapes (lots of them) to the hull.

What I'm wanting to do get the boat on the water without causing further water damage to the hull. The purpose of this for evaluating the boat to see if it works for me and how much time and effort I want to put in to making it all tidy and nice again. Also the weather isn't great for proper repairs (temperature and rain) at this time of year. I will be doing the repairs outside when I have a few spare hours and its not raining.

From what I've read a quick fix would be "to seal the area grind out, find out if structural, fill with glass and resin..a little resin rich.. then roughly grind the high points off to general shape" (courtesy of steps 2016)

Could I get a away with a few thick layers of gel coat without the grinding out and filling with glass and resin? Perhaps using a small radiant heater to help with the curing? It would only need to last 3 - 6 months before being attacked properly.

I'm thinking 2 layers of gel coat with out wax and then one final with wax.

P.S trying to figure out how to load pics

This is how I go about it-

1) cut back the gelcoat so you have a sound edge, give fiberglass and gelcoat a sand at edge- go gently- don't give yourself more work- something like a 400 wet will do trick. Then mask up as close as you can to site of repair.

2) Use a 2 pack micro filler- I use international epifill- its more expensive yes but its easily the best for small scratches and dings. It doesn't need gelcoat or paint if you can't be bothered and is easy to work. Fill to slightly proud.

3) Use sellotape or mylar tape  over epifill to shape to hull. You might need some extra wide tape. Thie tape not only compresses the filler but if you do it right you can reduce sanding after a lot and get a really good hull profile on the repair.

 4) leave it at least three days- pref 5.

5) Take masking and sellotape/mylar off. sand gently fine grade 1500+ - you only need a tiny difference for gelcoat with surrounding. gel coat is basically paint . Mask up surrounding again.

6)The color match for gelcoat on the hull will be a PITA- if you are not bothered much you'll get close enough. Frankly you can use a good marine enamel on anything  and prob get a closer match. If using gelcoat mix use clingfilm or mylar tape again till cured. Leave at least 72 hours

7) Unmask etc. Sand very lightly with a very fine grade- at least 1800 again

8) repeat gelcoat procedure again if req/biothered

8) T-cut if you're worried about that sort of thing

8) wax it.

9) go catch loads 

I would do all your dings at once-theyre not big- bearing in mind working time of epifill. You can adjust that by playing with mix a bit- but only a bit otherwise strength will be compromised. On the curing time/temp- I've used epifill midwinter lower north island a few times- yes it takes longer but if you are not fishing doesn't matter if the whole thing takes a week or two. As long as you use tape/ clingfilm on repairs and mask well-any rain that comes along shouldn't be a major issue- though obv don't start in the rain. Down south will be different for sure.

Hope this helps

cheers

Thanks for the info guys very helpful.

A couple of questions for you Bertiesdad.

The other dings look dryish/better to me so should I take gel coat back to sound edge, sand sound edge and exposed glass with 400 grit and apply epifill? no grinding out of glass or roughing up needed?

If I apply epifill uncoated, can I apply gel coat/marine enamel to it after using it in salt water?

I've had a check and can't see any movement when yanking on transom or outboard. It does have a lot of penetrations in it so would be at greater risk rot that I haven't identified.  I allowed for a DIY transom (and floor) replacement when buying. I haven't done it before but hopefully with enough research and pointers could do it if needed. I wouldn't say you sound negative just realistic about the likely condition of these older boats.

I'll get the gear together and post up some pics as I get into it.

Keen as to get it fixed up and on the water.

Yip I've decided to do a rough patch up with epifill (no paint or gel coat) at this time. Then all going well with the boat a one and done on all the major hull work. So floor, transom and exterior hull depending on what my investigations find. I'll have to sort out shelter to do the work so getting up it and going gives me time to work out a solution. As well as enjoying and getting some boating experience.

Kandrew that's a good idea. I might just remove one bolt at a time so leaving 3 holding the motor while I have a dig around from the interior side.Will look into the keel strip screws too. I'll do bit of search to see how others have approached it.

Re painting I've only done light research into the pro's and con's of paint vs gel coat so will do more before I decide which way to go.

Got the Epifill today and some 400 wet and dry. Gave a few spots a hit with the stanley knife to flick off the flakey bits of gel and fibreglass, then sanded with 400P W&D, 98% of the gel coat didn't flake at all. Here's a pic of the worst one.

 

Do you think I've broken the edges in enough for the fill to work properly?

After reading your guys post and watch the vidoe below, I have been leaning towards a paint system for ease of repairs and colour matching. Good to hear I don't need to spray to use a 1 or 2 pac paint as that simplifies the process. I found this video on gel coat vs paint quite helpful:

Pcj that looks pretty damn slick I'd be stoked if mine came up like that.

Ok I haven't got the dremel bits yet but gave it bit more of a cut back with a stanley knife.

Yes its the keel band see the pics below for a better view. Looks like the layer underneath is woven. There is a similar damage further along the keel that when I started prodding opened up just like this one (top two pics).

I was also thinking the keel band will have to come off as I started to scratch way at it. I want to prop the boat up on the trailer so I can remove it, will see what I can come up with/jerry rig. 

The boats not trailered right so the keel strip will have to stay for the time being. Fixing up the rollers and boat position is another item on the list.

Pulled a couple of keel screws too. Appear to be stainless, so I'm guessing they have been replace at some stage as originals are brass I believe? Only pulled three and they tightened back up solid.

I brought some selleys marine sealant so I can put some of that in the holes when I put the keel strip back on.

I don't have a flexi palette knife blade but I just thought of my feeler gauges, they are quite flexible so I will try them tomorrow.

Got close to getting the keel band off today. I've made a timber frame on the trailer to support the boat once I jack it up. Just need to put carpet on the timber supports, jack boat up and screw it into place.

Space is a constraint and I don't have any lifting gear so flipping the boat at my place without wrecking it would be difficult. I could really use proper high stud garage about now. I'm thinking that once the keel band is off I'll have to aggressively strip back the fiberglass till there's no more separation and do a proper repair. I've got a 125mm P80 flappy disk on my grinder that will make short work of it. I'll jerry rig something to provide heat so I can use a polyester resin to complete the structural repair and use epifill for fairing.

I got the keel strip off today and poked a 0.25mm feeler gauge around. The large hole has 8mm of separation under the keel band area and nil up the side of the keel. the smaller one has a few mm of separation. I'll get some disposable overalls then get into sanding it with the angle grinder.

Kandew - Thanks for the offer, I have some other structural repairs to make so will order a bunch of resin, double bias, csm etc once I know what I need.

Bertiesdad - Lawn space is at a premium and would have to remove some plants to roll it. Even then it would be tight without moving the boat back while rolling. When you say mix things a bit stiffer do you mean upping the catalyst or using an additive to thicken it up?

Got to spend a bit more time on it this morning. Ground back the large and small holes and opened up another next to the small hole + lightly touched shallow chips in the gel coat along the keel. Ended up chasing the separation along the keel line for the 3 holes (one new). I'm wondering if the separation on the new hole is layup related, some of the resin is very smooth as though there was no adhesion between layers to begin with.

New hole (small hole to the right)

Here's the large hole

small hole (to the right of the new hole)

Where I need to apply glass I will feather out 12:1 once a find something less agressive than a flappy disk on the grinder. Changed to P120 and it still stripped out the material very quickly. Will do some research and see what I can find.

One thing of concern I came across was a small amount of moisture coming out of a couple of keel screw holes 1/3 from the stern. I'm thinking water is soaking through the keel from the inside. The floor is definately leaking as water pisses out the bung hole everytime it rains. I'm guessing its leaking through cracks in the gel coat, as I've put sealant in any screw holes that I could find. Maybe its time to pull the floor up and have a look?