Gelcoat Repair
 

Can anyone recommend a good gel coat repair kit? My dad bought a wave runner that has a few dings on it. It is bright blue if that matters.

Yes, go to these guys and get the exact color. You will need the hull id number and make and model and year of your PWC.
http://www.spectrumcolor.com/BoatSearch.aspx

http://www.overtons.com/modperl/prod...t&merchID=4005

I used this on the keel of my Malibu. You can mix the base colors to match any color you have. It comes with a couple plastic squares for shaping the area you need to repair. It takes about 2 hours to dry. I liked it.

Brett,
How hard was it to get the color to match?

Packtat
I am sure that stuff is the right way to do it but I hate to buy a quart for 6 or 7 spots that are all smaller than a dime.

I used a similar kit to what Brett recommended yesterday. Color matching was pretty tough with my slightly off white hull. It actually dried a hair darker than the color before the hardener was added. Fortunately what I was repairing is below the water line so I will not be grinding it out and attempting a better match. It seems like it's a bit of an art so you likely won't get it right the first time. The quantities for a patch are so small that you can't really measure the pigments to reproduce the recipe later either.

I wanted to get the spectrum factory matched patch paste but it wasn't available in my color. If they have it for your boat and it's not faded then that's probably the way to go.

Don't get too carried away with filling it above the adjacent gel like I did. I figured I'd just sand it off but it's really hard and takes a lot of sanding.

Yes, as far as color matching, what I repaired was the keel, and therefore I wasn't going over the color match with a strict eye. Its a little off color, but not by much. If it was going to be in an area that is noticable above the water, I would spend the bucks to have it professionally done. I was quoted a few hundred dollars for the keel repair when this stuff cost me 40-some dollars and a few hours while drinking beer.

As far as sanding, the little strip of sand paper that comes with it is very fine grade. I would get a couple larger grain strips of sand paper to sand off big excess chunks, and then use the fine stuff to smooth it out. Thats what I did and sanding wasn't that hard, but I can see how it would be if you only used the little paper that comes with it.

IMO, if all of your dings are below the rub rail near the waterline or beneath it, I would buy one of these kits, test it out on a good sized ding on the bottom where nobody will notice if you screw it up, and see how you like it. Like I said its pretty cheap and the alternative may be very expensive, especially when talking about a PWC which all get scuffed up on the bottom with time.

Here is what I'm going to this summer.

Grant started this thread along time ago but he explains every thing really well. He used the spectrum kit so you don't have to worry about mix it.


http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=674757

Spectrum did not have a color match so after some digging I found this http://www.colorrite.com/product/kaw...-blue-1490.cfm but it appears to just be paint and not gel. Will this work?