Fiberglass repair, anyone know anything about it? pic related, I am trying to figure out how serious this is and if I can repair it myself.
>>987484
What is it- marine, structural or panel?
>>987486
it's on the side wall of a keel... so marine.
>>987487
Get a face mask, one of those disposable coverall and you'll need a sander.
Slowly cut back the layers around the crack and see how far the damage goes in. Fibreglass gets 'rot' so to speak where the layers separate as the epoxy has degraded- if the layers around the crack are able to be pushed in then you know its got some serious delamination and that'll generally be out of your amateur scope to fix.
If its still solid, then its a case of fibreglass, epoxy, more glass, epoxy, sanding and then repainting.
If it's serious delamination and it's out of my scope to fix, how much would something like this cost?
>>987497
Dunno mate, all I really know when it comes to boats is that they're a great way of getting rid of lots of money.
It shouldn't be too much, but marine epoxy's tend to cost a bit and some of them need heat to cure. Course the bodge way of doing it is to sand, fill and repaint regardless and sell it :)
>>987489
What he said apart from that the original material will be resin and not epoxy in the fibreglass.
I'm just repairing a motor boat - lots of stress cracking in the gelcoat and some structural work. Have had boats since I was 15 (oldfag).
Since it's a keel, the core will probably be steel or lead shot in a holding medium. I doubt very much if it's a foam cored laminate but if it is, step away and get an expert in.
Start by grinding from the centre of the damage until you have either gone through the fibreglass or down to a layer with no damage.
Bevel the grind as it moves outwards so it gets shallower until all the badly damaged area is gone. Grind into any stress cracks with a V bit on a dremel.
Allow to dry out thoroughly - several months under cover or put a heat lamp on it for several days. Using fibreglass cloth or csm and epoxy or layup resin, build the area up in layers until a mm or 2 under the original level. Then brush gelcoat over the area to bring it up to level. You will need to put plastic or other material over the gelcoat to get it to go off properly.
>>987515
To add, there are plenty of tutorials on youtube. Fibreglass isn't difficult to work with unless it's foam core laminate and that's a lot more specialist.
>>987515
Thanx a mil anon.
