Fiber Glass/gel Coat Help

[down2lb]

I REALLY NEED YOUR GUYS HELP,I BOUGHT THIS BOAT THAT HAS BEEN SITTING FOR ACOUPLE YEARS,THIS BOAT IS A FULL CARBON FIBER BOAT WITH CARBON FIBER INLAYS,WELL WHEN I WENT TO PICKUP THE BOAT WHICH WAS AFTER I PURCHASED IT I NOTICED THESE BLEMISHES WHICH I SUPPLIED PICTURES OF,THIS BOAT WAS TAKEN OUT OF THE MOLD AND HAS NOT BEEN FINISHED AND THEY SAY IT STILL NEEDS TO BE COLOR/SAND AND BUFFED AND THAT IT COULD BE FIXED THAT ITS CALLED ALLIGATORING aka CHECKING AND WHEN U PULL A BOAT OUT OF A MOLD ITS NEVER %100 PERCENT BUT AFTER ASKING AROUND PEOPLE ARE TELLING ME IT MIGHT BE FIXABLE BUT MIGHT NOT BEABLE TO KEEP THE CARBON FIBER LOOK WHICH IS MAKING ME UPSET CAUSE I REALLY LIKE IT AND THATS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY I BOUGHT IT. I HOPING I CAN GET ALOT OF HELP HER AND HOPE TO FIND IT CAN BE FIXED WHYLL KEEPING THE LOOK! THANKS GUYS

[wet-foot]

Find out what they used for a clear coat and pick some up. you should be able to sand or grind through the blemishes without hitting the carbon cloth and fill it in and block sand then polish it up. Down the road if you get dings you would be doing this anyway. Who ever built the boat should at least give you what you need or who ever sold it to you should help you out with this. Good Luck

[down2lb]

so are u saying i can salvage it and still keep the carbon fiber look which im hoping and want to do and not have to gel coat a different color over it??

[pescaloco]

If it came out of the mold like that then it most likey is a clear epoxy...........but if they clear coated after removal from the mold and then it was damaged who knows what the materials is.

A clear UV resistant epoxy that will sand and buff out to high gloss finish

Follow the advise of the othe poster on the repair.

[down2lb]

how do u determine how far to go down so u dont hit the carbon fiber cloth and screw it all up,cause i heard if u hit the carbon fiber cloth your basically screwed???!!

[pescaloco]

Originally Posted by down2lb

how do u determine how far to go down so u dont hit the carbon fiber cloth and screw it all up,cause i heard if u hit the carbon fiber cloth your basically screwed???!!

You only have to rough the surface of the pitted area so your filler material will adhere. The rest is to block sand down and then polish it, similar to a gelcoat repair.

Maybe a fill with a very clear epoxy and topcoat with clear polyurethane to blend in the repair is probably the easier way for you to go. It however is not actually easy it will require some skills to do it and make it look good.

Check out Alex seal marine coatings they are user friendly,they wetsand and buff out well

[ondarvr]

If it was just a simple gator you could possibly make it look OK, but the carbon fiber has also floated in the resin which has moved it away from the surface. The resin has a dirty translucent color which is going to hide the CF somewhat in these areas, so its not going to look perfect.

If you want it to look perfect, or as close to it as you can get, you may need to do a little painting, or create a design with tape to cover these cloudy areas.

First find out what they used, polyester, VE or epoxy, then get a little from them to do the repairs.

[wet-foot]

I've done patches ( air gaps ) that have come out looking like that. The fix is easy, will just take longer if there's a lot of it. To me the most important thing is using the same clear coat that is on the boat now. That's why it would be nice if you could contact the builder. Any good repair shop can steer you in the right direction too. I'm guessing it is a clear poly or vinyl gel. This stuff will stick to epoxy without turning all gooey. I use poly gelcoat over epoxy all the time for repairs. Sounds wrong but the trick is to put it on thick then sand it down.
The only time I had issues is when I layed it on thin, it wouldn't harden up.

You should be able to use a really sharp chisel and and open up the flaws.
You don't have to grind into the cloth. Try repair a small spot, think you'll be surprised how easy it is. Once the boat ages the repaired areas will look different if you used a different material. Good luck hope the damaged area isn't too large.

[pescaloco]

Listen to ondvar and wetfoot said, find out what materials were used
I jumped the gun a little on my advise

[down2lb]

i know they used vinylester resins and it was layed up at lynches in lake havasu city, az if that helps at all???so do u guys think that i can get this fixed good enough to where u cant tell,these boats are 600k boats so i want it to look like it

[ondarvr]

To be honest no, like I said before, the carbon floated in the resin and is covered with VE in some places, there is no way to fix that easily.


To fix it by repairing the laminate would require grinding out the entire CF area and some of the color around it deep enough to lay in new CF with VE.
After that you would need to apply clear gel coat over the CF and then apply the color with nice clean straight lines around it.

You can easily fix it by using tape and/or paint lines though, this is common on some boats, may not be the best answer, but workable.

[wet-foot]

If you want something really outstanding, no work for you!!!! go with a vinyl wrap. You can put anything you want into the design. Wraps are the future for any high performance sport boat.

[tunnels]

Its all cosmetic ! who ever did the job made a terrible job of something really simple during the building process .!!!

[GG]

Originally Posted by tunnels

Its all cosmetic ! who ever did the job made a terrible job of something really simple during the building process .!!!

Tunnels for once i agree .