TradeMark Marine is your go to specialist for repairing your marine fiberglass and boat gelcoat repair near me. Having gelcoat stress cracks on your boat is a very common issue that all of the marine industry encounters on a regular basis. Thankfully, all gelcoat and fiberglass damage can easily be restored to its original condition. Gelcoat stress cracks are commonly referred to as spider cracks and if not treated properly they will lead to further damage. Gelcoats issues can sometimes arise in the first few years of a boat’s life from either physical damage or poor craftsmanship.
If properly addressed and taken care of in a timely manner you can remove the signs of stress and provide your boat a better overall protection for its lifetime. Hopefully, the gelcoat stress crack does not go past the first layer of the marine fiberglass chopped strand matt. If you are in need of any type of Gelcoat Repair in the Palm Beach County and surrounding communities in South Florida give us a call.
For the rest of you that might be looking for more information on how to Do it yourself when it comes to any type of marine fiberglass gelcoat repair. The rest of this article will then teach you the basics when it comes to performing gelcoat repairs without the help of marine fiberglass repair near me experts. One of the first and main ingredients for any marine gelcoat repair is TIME. Simply put it is a laborious process that requires a large dose of physical labor with an eagle eye for eyeballing the fine details and making more work for yourself. When a marine gelcoat repair is done properly you will save not only time but labor and materials as well.
For you to complete this marine gelcoat repair you will be required to adhere to a few basic steps.
- A thorough inspection of your boat’s whole gelcoat will help with locating the stress cracks. Once the stress areas have been identified you must thoroughly clean the areas with a specialty marine solvent silicone and wax remover that will rid the boat’s areas that have contaminants such as wax or oils. After locating the stress cracks in your gelcoat you can start the gelcoat repair. With a new cloth, clean the area with a wax and silicone remover that canwill rid the area of any surface contaminants such as oils and wax. Then use another new marine grade towel after wiping down and removing the contaminants and vigorously dry it.
- Then you must use a “V”-shaped tool, so that you can begin to penetrate and open the crack. As you continually scrape along the crack, it will begin to widen. A crucial thing to keep in mind is that you are only scraping down into the clean gelcoat. Whatever you do, don’t scrape through and into the glass.
- As soon as you scrape out the crack you can then fill the void with marine grade gelcoat. Fill the void of the marine gelcoat’s surface just so it is higher than the surface. An important step in the process is to make sure that the gelcoat completely cures before moving on to the next process in the gelcoat repair. Once you have properly filled the stress crack in the gelcoat, you will then need to evenly blend the gelcoat with the rest of the boat’s surface. Carefully, tape off the perimeters outside the gelcoat repair areas that you had previously de-waxed.
- Then you will use around a 320-grit specialty marine sandpaper, carefully sand the area out to your tape line.
- Once you have sanded the area, you will just need to apply a finish with a new application of gelcoat.
Call TradeMark Marine to find out more how we can help you with any of your Marine Gelcoat Repairs.