How To Repair Gouges In Fiberglass

There's nothing more disheartening for a boat owner than to see their carefully-maintained hull suddenly endure a gouge. Gouges aren't only cruddy, but can lead to more substantial bug such as leakage and long-term hull harm. We've put together a few tips for the best practices in fiberglass hull gouge repair to assistance you lot maintain your craft.

It Gets Worse Earlier It Gets Better

Many boat owners wait for the quick set solution—a simple putty they can put in their hull, the equivalent of duct tape for boats. But a fiberglass hull is more subtle than that. Like cleaning out the kitchen cabinets—it volition wait worse before information technology looks improve. That's because one of the best ways to repair a gouge is to use a high-speed die grinder or rotary tool featuring a burr nose. This gives y'all a gamble to polish out the edges a bit, which in turn makes it possible to add the gel coat more finer.

Sympathise What You've Lost

A fiberglass hull gouge is and then serious because information technology gets right through the layers of your hull's protectant. It's important to sympathise what yous've lost with a gouge like that. One of the almost of import layers is the gel coat—the outer layer that creates a de facto seal between your gunkhole's hull and the aquatic surround. When this gel coat is damaged, your hull is susceptible to all sorts of issues.

FamilyHandyMan.com recommends using the following to repair the various layers of your hull:

Powdered fiberglass filler
Gel Glaze
Gel Glaze reducer

To order the proper gel coat, y'all should have a look at your brand and series number and contact the manufacturer of your boat to get as close a match equally possible to your colour. The gel coat reducer volition sparse out the coat and then it's capable of spraying, which will provide yous with an even coating.

Safe Get-go

Handling something as challenging as gel glaze will require focus and attention. So pay a proficient fleck of that attention on safety, wearing goggles and chemical-resistant gloves to keep yourself out of impairment's way.

In one case you've mixed the gel coat properly—shoot for a consistency similar peanut butter—you can then apply the batches to the boat with a tool. Don't be afraid to work in small-scale batches to ensure that you handle each one properly, but keep in mind that the gel coat tends to cure speedily.

Caulking & Sealing

What if your hull gouge didn't come in the fiberglass, just you find areas of your gunkhole that you need to caulk and seal? We have a range of boat caulking and sealing products available for quick repairs. The key, equally ever, is to lucifer the proper sealant with the material getting sealed. It'southward critical that you shop from a qualified boating store like BoatLIFE to ensure that all the products y'all apply are marine-grade and designed for boats.