gelcoat question

[bshannon]

I have a 99 Sea ray Sundancer 310. There is an approx 3feet by 3feet section on the bridge where the gelcoat is lifting or seperating from the fiberglass. Looking at the bridge,you would never know;however,when you step on this section you can feel it because it feels springy. Any advice on what would be the best and cheapest way to fix this?

[Charlie]

Sounds more like fiberglass delaminating. If so you can try drilling holes in the first layer of the deck, injecting epoxy with a syringe, placing something heavy to hold the delaminated parts together, and then patch the drilled holes. More complicated then that but that is the gyst.

[bshannon]

Sorry,that's what i meant! Would that work on such a big area?

[rwidman]

You might want to call in a pro or two before you try a do it yourself fix. If your attempt doesn't work it could make a proper repair much more difficult.

[Lepke]

Charlie's way is the cheapest, maybe the best.
Otherwise you have to cut around the edge where it is delaminated, lift the piece out of the way, sand both sides (not absolutely necessary but helps bond), spread epoxy, put the piece in place and weight down, and then later fix the cut you originally made.
You need to drill enough holes to fully get the resin everywhere and to get the edges so the delamination stops. You can get empty caulking gun tubes that make injecting epoxy easier.
Use a good epoxy, don't use polyester resin. That's the problem now.

[boatpoker]

It is almost certain that the balsa core is wet and degraded. Injecting epoxy which cannot stick to wet compost is a waste of time, all you end up with are globs of free floating hard epoxy that have not bonded to anything.

Cut off the skin, dig out the bad balsa, re-core and re-glass. Not what you wanted to heat but it's the only way it can be guaranteed to work.