I saw pics on here of lss1 in rod locker and it appeared to be on the boat fiberglass side. So I mount mine on the right side against the water side with a small 1/4 screw... And yes it busted thru gel coat... How do I repair? It is above the water line and not real noticeable... But I am afraid it will do damage over time and it bothers me... Had the boat less than 3 weeks
LOL, not laughing at you but with you. I did the same on my last boat and was so proud of my install until i got out of the boat and noticed 2 screw tips protruding thru my metal flake hull. I used the below water line silicone that I mixed silver glitter with and worked it in the very small holes. I am sure there is a better way but like you said it was above the water line and never leaked a drop. It wasn't even noticeable if you didn't know it was there.
Ranger Z520
Yamaha HPDI 250
You have several options. The problem you are going to have is getting something to really get all the way into the hole (becasue it is so small, that it will be hard to get good penetration) to do it right you would really need to drill the hole out a little larger to make sure that your patch material goes all the way through. If it were my boat I would probally drill or grind it out to at least a 1/8" diameter hole then use marine-tex as the patch. Then depending on the color of the gel coat and how much the marine-tex patch stands out you could try to do a skim coat of a matched gel/flake. However if you have to go to the expense of buying gel/flake, you might as well grind it out, reglass it, re-gel it and get it back to a factory finish.
If it was just the tip of the screw and IF you can barley notice it on the gelcoat side, and it has not fractured out the gelcoat then you an try and leave as much of the original gel on as possible.
Back the screw out, clean up the inside area, remove any loose particles. Do the same for the gelcoat side. Wipe with acetone to remove any waxes / contaminants.
If the outside gel is still smooth with only a slight puncture were the tip of the screw may have broached it, just be sure it is clean and has no loose ends or ragged pieces.
From the inside, mix up some of the catalyzed gelcoat and force it thru the hole until you see it start to appear on the outside, then tape a piece of Mylar or plastic/cellophane over gelcoat side and flatten it out good.
Gel should set up in a few hours, let it sit then remove the tape and after a day if noticeable you can sand it smooth oi finish.
Thanks for the great ideas.. of i knew how to post pics on here I would do so. It is not big at all but did come through the gel coat in the metalic flake... black with blue/gold glitter
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