I recently performed minor gel coat repair on my fiberglass kayak. The gel coat repair was successful, but I would like a refresher on how to sand the repair smooth. I didn’t use wax paper or plastic like some recommened on this board, so the patch job is a bit rough at this point. I have 400 and 600 grit wet sand paper, but I’d appreciate any tips or considerations regarding how to sand. I’ve done this once before on another kayak, and the sand job did not get the gel coat consistently smooth and/or shiny (too much water, too little??). It effectively removed the unneeded gel coat, but it was obvious I did a rookie repair job and had a rather rough finish. I know the saran wrap approach is ideal, but I mixed a rather runny batch of gel coat and it tended to spread the gel coat way beyond the actual repair site - thus, I just dabbed/brushed the gel coat and created a rougher finish.
Hope this helps
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Use more tape : )
gel coat
I used gel coat from West Marine (and had to mix together the resin and the hardner). Same product that’s been recommended on this board before. The finish is very hard so I think it will sand just fine. Thanks for the comments - some good suggestions.
It sounds like finish gelcoat…
…which is the right product for the job. I have some pics of gelcoat repair on Webshots at:
http://community.webshots.com/user/brian_nystrom
A more detailed article (with the same pics) will be coming out in a future issue of Wavelength magazine.