I got a small gouge in my gel coat about 1/2" long by about 1/8 wide I want to try and patch. just in a very tiny spot in the deepest part it is actually into the fiberglass. anyway it is flake colored so I called ranger and got them to send me the appropriate color. What the sent was a dry powder with the coloring and flake.
How do I mix this? do I mix it with clear gel coat? how much would I mix in?
I'm going to be doing this very exact thing to my boat tomorrow. Ranger sold me the clear and dry flake to mix together. I figure I will mix enough dry flake to the clear to get it thick as toothpaste and then add the hardener, got that at the paint store, as Ranger won't sell you the hardener. My chip is kind of a hole so I want it thick to keep it in the hole, if you get my drift. I'll let you know how it goes.....
Please let me know how it went. The smallest QTY they would sell me was a Pint so I have enough to do alot. I was thinking Of mixing up a few batches and and Putting it on a scrap piece of something just to see and get a feel for it.
I got the dry flake from Ranger last year in pint cans. I have not tackled that repair yet.
Can't wait to see the end results.
<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by mikec »</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">I got a small gouge in my gel coat about 1/2" long by about 1/8 wide I want to try and patch. just in a very tiny spot in the deepest part it is actually into the fiberglass. anyway it is flake colored so I called ranger and got them to send me the appropriate color. What the sent was a dry powder with the coloring and flake.
How do I mix this? do I mix it with clear gel coat? how much would I mix in?
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You'll need some clear gelcoat.
A small tube of catalyst ( hardener) MEKP ( Methyl Ethyl Ketone Peroxide ).
To get a perfect match, experiment so you can try and duplicate the color and flake pattern on your boat.
Mix up tablespoon amounts of clear gel, with a drop or 2 of hardener and the flakes to try and match yours.
Wax a piece of plastic or cardboard and when you mix/catalyze, drop it on the waxed part, when it hardens you'll be able to peel it off and lay it on your spot to see which mix matches best.
When you get the right mix, then clean the gouge with acetone, sand off any ridges , high spots, etc. clean with acetone again.
Lay in the mix and build it up to slightly higher than the surrounding gelcoat as it will shrink slightly as it cures.
Cover it with a piece of wax paper, cellophane, plastic wrap..to keep the air off it while it cures.
Should set up in about 6 - 8 hours, then sand with 800/1000/1200, compound and wax.
Well, I got good news and bad news. My repair went really well and I took a couple pics with my phone, not the best. My boat is dark red and in the garage so the light was not so good, but I will post them anyway, IF I can get them off my phone, seems it all of a sudden won't take a charge or transfer pics to the computer, just my luck. I'm working on it.
glad it went well for you! did you do a trial and error to get the color matched? any advice on the ratios of the mix? I am going to takle this later today or tomorrow.
My patch job was fairly small so I only needed to mix 1 tsp. flake to 1 tsp. clear, and i could tell after through mixing that it was the right color in the cup, Then I added 5 or 6 drops of hardener, put it in the hole, covered it with masking tape to hold it there, waited about 4 hours, took the tape off and it was perfect. I will let it cure some more and then lightly 1500 wet sand and hand buff. Good luck with yours
thanks! I mixed up about 4 batches yesterday let it cure on wax paper then matched it up to the boat. I found your same results of about 1 tsp of flake to 1 tsp of gel matched best. It was actually more than I thought to use, it seamed to start to get really gritty but dried smooth. the batches I tried wth less flake did not match well. I am about to head out and do the actual repair on the boat now.
I finally got the pics off my phone, not the best but all I got....
Original bad spot..
Taped off before fill job..
Tape folded over to form lip after fill..
Tape removed, before sand and buff..
After sand and buff..
looks really good; Nice jobI just pullerd the the tape off mine need to sand yet, tomorrows project, but looks pretty good alot better than it did. the color you were doing looks almost identical to mine.
Sand lightly, you can over do it, mine was Crimson, really not as hard as it looks.......
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