I just talked to a local dealer that does fiberglass/gelcoat repairs. He quoted me ~$500 to do a small metalflake repair (per each). And if I wanted the bottom re-gelcoated $8000 ! The bottom is solid black color.
Is he out of line or am I? I had the bottom of an 18' boat done once for $450. What do you think?
Butch Derickson
2011 Z521 w/250 hp SHO
Traverse City, Michigan
What size/make boat ? When you say bottom, is that just the boot, or from the rub rail down ?
I have a 89' Ranger 374V (17'10") and was quoted $6,000 for just the top cap. Thus, one of the reasons for my restoration project!
Troutgnat.
I have a '99 Ranger 519VS. It's 20.5' long & I want to get all the nicks, scratches, etc cleaned up. There are some scrapes on the bottom from contact with gravel etc over the years. I would like to get the whole thing buffed out once the nicks are fixed. From the way the guy I talked to sounded it would cost as much as a new hull by the time he gets done.
The other side of this is that I am located in Northern Michigan and fiberglass shops that have even seen a metalflake hull are pretty rare.
I am getting ready to retire and I just want to fix up the old boat and get it looking as good as I can. It is as solid a boat now as it was new. 60K for a new one is waay out of reach.
Butch Derickson
2011 Z521 w/250 hp SHO
Traverse City, Michigan
Good glass shops are not cheap. $ 450.00 to gelcoat a hull, you won't get that in a competent shop.
If the shop is filling a lot of gouges and scratches on a hull before gelcoating, there is a lot of hand labor involved, and shop prices can be in the $ 75.00 to $ 100.00+ an hour for glasswork, especially on polyflake.
$ 8000.00 is on the real high end, but it all depends on how many hours they have to spend to repair all the scratches, gouges, before they start the actual prep work and sanding for the hull regel.
Then another day sanding/compounding/polishing the cured gel.
They also are probably going to have to remove the motor and jackplate, flip the boat over, etc. There is a lot more involved in reshooting a hull than just the spraying, it's not like spraying a car where you an just tape it off, sand and prime and shoot.
As far as $ 500.00 for a polyflake gouge repair, that is also in the ballpark, on the very high end too. Most place will be in the $ 300.00 range for a small repair for polyflake.
Try an auto body shop the specializes in glasswork on Corvettes, they may be able to give you better pricing than a dealer who might not do that much glasswork.
Listen, I have a 520 ranger that had several scratches on it when I bought it. I figured it could be fixed for under a 1000.00 I took it to a glass shop and the guy said it would take at least 2500.00 to fix from the rub rail up. I about sh&t, I mean it was bad but I couldn't believe that. I went home did a little internet studying and did it myself. It was scary at first but it is easy as hell. WAY WAY WAY easier than you would think. I fixed every mark on my boat for around 400.00. I didn't use half of the material I bought either. I may never use a boat bumper again. Once you get good at it, you could fix a spot and wax it the same day if the weather was nice. Ranger sold me everything it took to fix my boat and the most expensive part were the decals.
You can probably buy the matching color gel coat from the boat manufacturer for around 25.00 a quart. Mixing it with the hardener is the tuff part but its not all that hard to figure out. Then you could get a cheap gun from anywhere since your not going to be spraying poly flake. I used a 6.00 prevail gun to do the work I did. I don't recommend this for you because the area is too big.
My Ranger 520 got loose in a dock during a storm and had some gouges in the metal flake but nothing major. I took it to a firberglass shop and just about crapped when they told me the repair would be $6500. I took it to another plance and they told me the repair would be about $5000 and a third place and the repair would be around $6200. I turned it into my insurance (Progressive) and took it to the first place and they fixed it up so you could never tell the damage happened. Total cost to me was $750 for my deductable.
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