Basscat7

[djarrett]

You seem to really know gel coat and I would like your advice. I paint cars on the side but have little to zero gel coat experience besides colorsanding it.

I have some gouges on the bottom of my hull. Some one sealed them before me with clear 4200 or 5200. It seems to have at least kept the water out of the fiberglass but the guy i bought it from said it never would last long and he would have to continually smear more on the gouges.

I have bought (but hasn't delivered yet) a 14 oz. marine tex mighty repair kit which I assume is a 2 part epoxy putty. I should have asked before i bought it, but is this the correct stuff to properly and permanently seal the gouges? The gouges are on the very bottom of my hull and pad, will this stuff be watertight below the waterline? The boat doesn't leak now, but i do know i need to seal the gouges up as they are all the way thru the gel coat.

My hull is black with no flake, the kit is gray. Can I spray some black paint over the marine tex? I guess it doesn't matter being where it is but I would like to know if I even have the option to hide the repairs a little better.

Also, should the gouges be ground out some and feathered up to the gel, or should the surrounding gel coat be scuffed up. I would assume yes as this will not be a chemical adhesion like base coat/clear coat. If yes what grit do you recommend using in the gouges and what grit on the gel?

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions...

[perfect-storm]

Marine Tex will work for chips and gouges on the bottom. It is completely water tight, more so than gel coat even. It comes in grey or white but being on the bottom of the pad, color really shouldn't matter at all. You can tint the marine tex with a coloring agent, the brand you can use is listed in the marine tex package. However, it retards the cure time so don't use much and a true black you probably won't get. I used the grey on my last Storm (black bottom) and it stayed on the pad for over 10 years at this point.
Just mix it up properly. Scuff the gouge and it's internal edges with a little sand paper. Your not scuffing the outside area as your not applying the marine tex there. Just filling the gouge and tooling the product straight and even. Wipe the gouge out with some Acetone. Apply your marine tex and if you are careful and use some care in tooling it on, you can get it smooth and it will look decent. It will outlast the rest of the boat.

I also put it on some bottom chips on my current Storm and has held up for several years so far.


Modified by perfect-storm at 6:41 PM 3/1/2010

[BASSCAT7]

What Storm said.

Works best if used in 65 - 70 degree temps.
If you are not concerned with the match , you can hit it with black spray to cover it.
Before you do, make sure it is completely cured for a few days. Then scrub the repair with warm soapy water to remove the amine blush ( waxy type material ) and rinse good with warm water.