Gel coat Repair

[weephee]

Hello. I am in the process of restoring an 8.7 m, 1977 columbia sailboat. Attached are 3 pictures of some damage above the one port light. Two questions.
1 what would cause this to happen
2. How do I go about repairing.
Thanks

[S/V_Surya]

Hard to say what caused this but does not look structural. Looks like a manufacturers defect, maybe to thick gel coat layer when laying up. I would say just grind it down to see how far cracks go. If just gel coat just get some patch. I had a Columbia 9.6 for 20 years and never saw this on my boat. Some tabs came loose on the interior on the front and Boat had serious pox problem.

[weephee]

Thanks for the reply. Once I grind the cracks out, can I mix up some epoxy, color it and apply or should I buy gel coat and use it. What is a good gel coat product

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by weephee

Thanks for the reply. Once I grind the cracks out, can I mix up some epoxy, color it and apply or should I buy gel coat and use it. What is a good gel coat product

If it is just in the gel coat this is what I use in my bussiness for minor repairs like that
Amazon.com: evercoat gelcoat repair kit

[S/V_Surya]

This is what I suggest. Grind out cracks and use thickened epoxy to fill and sand to get an even surface. I had a gallon of gelcoat made from a company called spectrum after I sent them a sample. Came out very close. Making your own match is somethingI was never good at. You can try to go to Lowes to get a formula which might help to get close. Gel coat is not self leveling so you will need to build layers (5) and then sand using increasingly finer wet sand paper.