Fiberglass Repair

[dtrs5kprs]

On 12/29/2020 at 9:00 PM, fishinwrench said:

For gouges like Bill is showing off, you can simply smooth out the edges, aquire some paint and flake to match, mix it up in a Solo cup with 2-Hour epoxy until it's as close to the original finish as possible, prep it with prep-sol or rubbing alcohol, warm the area slightly with a hair dryer, lay it in with a popsicle stick or a credit card as it begins to stiffen up, then stretch and tape a piece of Saran Wrap or wax paper over it to keep it level with the edges until it sets up good (use a credit card over the saran wrap/wax paper, as needed, to keep it smooth).......Then use some #0000 steel wool and a few drops of water to lightly blend it in.  Hit it with alcohol again. Rub on a final thin coat of straight clear epoxy, let dry a couple days..... Then polish and wax.   

Good for at least 5-6 years. After that it may begin to yellow a bit....but by that time you'll likely have enough other blemishes on the boat that it won't matter. 😊

I've done basically this, many times. Usually with factory gel and flake, and a good clear resin. Heavy packing tape works well for bigger repairs.

3M makes a couple of good compounds for getting a nice shine on it. One hand, one machine. Hard part is not turning a color flake silver. That's also why my current boat is mostly white and silver. Easier to fix.

Bo Dowden did a Pro's Pointers on this method for the old Bassmaster show many years ago. It works.