Gel coat guy's calling GRANT??

I'm wanting to try to fix the nose of my boat. Where I had a run in with the trailer on a ramp that was way to steep and the nose went under the roller and destroyed the gel. I've read all of grant's DIY's a million time but mines alittle different. I think I might as well try it any before I take it to some one.

How would yall go about fixing this.

And this one

morning bump

Are you going to pull your rub rail, or try to work around it? If you're leaving it on, duct tape will work better than painter's tape for protection.

The fiberglass looks ok based on the pictures. I would start by taping it off about 2" back from the repair, and then using a dremel and trying to level out the edges and give you a wide adhesive point. Maybe take it back 1" all the way around the repair, with about 220 grit finish.

You're down deep enough to see fabric, so you should sand with 60 grit until the resin is dull and ready for the next layer. Then apply either a primer or epoxy sealer (see your gelcoat's instructions) Then follow grant's instructions or the dozens of instructions online for applying gelcoat either by sprayer or brush. Don't go too crazy, thick gelcoat will spider crack when it shrinks.

I am not a boat expert or play one on TV. I've only rebuild one boat

I'm going to leave the rub rail on the boat.

What do you think about the blue gel. I figured I could never get the blue point to look right again, so I was just going to take the dremel and grind it back until I had a straight line on blue then fill white gel coat up to the edge.

I'd build that up with some mat and resin before trying to put any filler and gel coat on it. That's a pretty thick repair. If it was a car you wouldn't think of putting body filler on that thick .... at least not if you knew what you were doing. Think of the mat and resin as pounding out the dent or welding in some new sheet metal. The filler is only to create a sandable surface that can be made smooth. Gel coat is the paint although usually a bit thicker than paint on a car.

but didn't just have gel on there from the factory?

I don't know I'm just asking!!

How much do you think it would be to have somebody fix it for me.

That's way beyond my pay grade I would take that boat straight to "Ken land " for his patented $50 "any gelcoat repair special"

to bad Ken land is no where near NC LOL

really though Grant, you got nothing to add LOL

I fixed an area similar to that on our new MB after the wife bumped the dock from a big wave.

I would remove the rub rail to do it right and drimel the edges of the chips smoother. I did mine over the winter and the gel coat dried slow and I had to do it few times to get the right build up material that could be sanded and shaped correctly, but it turned out great in the end and not noticeable at all.

^nice work James!

Look great James that make me feel better so body else has tried it and had good results

Take the rub rail and loosen it up in and around the damage area.
You will need to be able to blend the repair under the rub rail.

You boats finish looks pretty beat down, and honestly I have NEVER seen Gell that thick mist gells are the thickness of a credit card.

So this is what I would do. I would rough up the raw fiberglass, rough it it real good put some serious
Deep scratches into the fiberglass to make the repair stick. I would take kitty hair. "That's cut up fiberglass" I would add it to resin and use it to build up or make the basic shape. Then I would use a real fine fiberglass Matt to start building up and covering your kitty hair and resin base. The fine fiberglass mesh will be the layer that holds everything down and together. Then when you are happy with the basic shape I would switch over to using a plastic body filler. I wouldn't use the filler to build up but more or less fill in the holes and fine tune the voids and shape.

Then I would order up some of the Spectrum Gellcoat. (Spray Gell coat) you can buy a cheep HVLP top feed Gell gun for cheep. I would mask and spray out the white and then the Blue.

Imo that's a $1000-$1500 repair min at any shop.

Thanks grant I bought the gel patch kit from spectrum but I think it's a past and not a spray.

I know the nose looks rough but I promise the rest of the boat it spotless. I use what I read from your post to compound, buff, and wax every year.

I think I need to read up on how to build up fidberglass alittle more then.

That repair is going to blend several inches past the damaged area. So ur going to need room to feather or blend the repair. When I saw that you were not going to remove the rub rail I kind of just tuned out. Unfortunately you've damaged the boat in a place where that rub rail needs to be removed. I don't know your skill level but I would be willing to help walk you through the process to fix it. Have you ever done auto bodywork before and if so are you any good at it

As Grant has mentioned, it looks like the glass has been flexed and separated. That will require some further work to repair before gel-coating. It may be possible to make this work without removing the trim/rub-rail, but it will probably crack where the old meets the new gel. Fix it once correctly or be prepared to do it again.

Your steps are to:

- first remove any loose gel-coat and split/separated fibreglass. Feather the fibreglass back far enough to build up layers to the original. You may be able to use epoxy and fillers with small holes to rebond small separations in the glass, but new layers are better. Use a 1:10 rule for depth to width for feathering.

- use a similar rule for the gel-coat. It needs a good surface to cling to and it needs similar feathering or you will always see the repair. Colour matching will always be a challenge in a visible area. Ensure you read the directions for the gel-coat you are using to ensure a proper bond and cure. Plan on numerous layers and lots of sanding. There are a number of repair jobs posted on this site that are more involved than yours. Even I had one a few years ago involving hull damage from a rudder and prop hitting a rock. Did I forget to say, lots of grinding, fibreglass/epoxy work, sanding, gel-coat, sanding, gel-coat, sanding, gel-coat, repeat... polish, worry about it, and finally forget about it as just a distant memory of a bad day on the water.

Life is short ... pay a shop.

Let's consider that, the various insurance policies you carry for health, house, car and boat don't cover every imaginable dimunition of property value for everything.

With that chipped nose on your boat, hack away if you want.

If the project is an estimated $1500 shop job ... and you're willing to put in X hours so that you're doing twice over minimum wage to save paying a professional job ... unless this project is going to grow your life perspective many times over ....

you're wasting your time.