So I chipped a little chunk of gel coat off my Current Designs Vision 120, which is generic kevlar and fiberglass layup covered in white gelcoat. The chip is about three quarters the diameter of a penny. The fibers are exposed now that the chip is gone. Can I repair it with marine epoxy putty? Brand – PC Marine, from the makers of PC-7. It’s the long dough rod of expoxy with the hardener in the middle, and you break off a piece and kneed it and then press it in place. I’ve used various PC7 products with great success in metal shop work. Wondering if there is a problem using PC Marine on my glass boat? It’s specified for marine hull repairs, and it mentions fiberglass specifically. The chip is off the bow where it comes to a point a little below the waterline. Darn the rocky Susquehanna River in low-water summer!
I’ve used PC-11 to good effect.
Never used that other stuff, though.
tough stuff
I’ve used that marine epoxy with good results. Unlike regular gelcoat repair, once the epoxy is hardened in, it doesn’t come out!
a lot of things will work
epoxy putty, marine-tex, gel-coat, you could also ignore it as there really isn’t any structural damage to the hull. Whatever you use if you don’t fair it well it’ll stand out. With the gel-coat repair you’re more likely to have a matching texture/color.
Personally I’d continue bashing the heck out of the ends then someday go to town with a near final solution after grinding the ends down and replacing the worn gel coat with a strip of epoxy putty or dynel cord soaked in epoxy just on the endds.
no worries w/the exposure of cloth?
I wouldn’t worry about it
It’s not the same as a smash in midsection where the resin is shattered and water can enter into the kevlar through the inside of the hull. If I understand the damage it’s chipped gelcoat with exposed fiberglass and the laminate itself is solid. I could be wrong but I don’t see the need to immediately seal up exposed glass compared to exposed kevlar or repair fractured laminate.
The problem I have with repairing each little gel coat ding in the ends is that it’s probably going to happen again and again. Why not wait until there’s enough dings or do one big pre-emptive wear strip of epoxy putty or epoxy soaked cord of some sort just on the ends.
I’ll play "devil’s advocate"
While I agree with Lee that trying to repair every little ding will drive you nuts and keep you off the water, I wouldn’t leave exposed glass uncovered. It’s not that the water will harm it, but in an area that receives a fair amount of abuse, the odds of another impact on the already damaged area are pretty good. If another impact damages the glass, the repair will be more complex, difficult and time consuming. Covering the damage with gelcoat or epoxy putty will protect it and prevent additional damage.
Might depend on whether the chip
appears to have merely exposed the cloth, or the cloth appears somewhat disrupted. I have lots of chips in the red epoxy topcoat of my slalom boat, exposing the S-glass. But the S-glass usually does not look at all disrupted. If it does, I do a little repair. This boat is a little strange, S-glass outside and carbon inside, a first-out-of-the-mold experiment by Dagger. Very stiff. The hull will not “give” much to a blow. That does require that I watch for cracking.