TOPIC: PLEASE HELP ME THIS IS MY FIRST BOAT!!!

Hi

I just joined this site a week ago although I have been following some of the forums for over a year, since I bought my very first boat last summer. It is a 1987 (I think lol) Sunray Allegro and I used it all last summer and enjoyed it with my whole family and after checking out this site I decided to tackle the challenging job of restoring it.

I know that this is a big job and it will provide me with lots of challenges but I feel that with the positive responses I read in many of the forums on here, I believe I will get some great advice to start me on my path to a beautifully restored boat. I have included several pictures which show the damage through out the boat and I have read all the articles, but I could not find one that deals with the repair of stress cracks in the gelcoat and how to begin this process.

I ripped out all of the carpet since it was quite old and needed to be replaced, and I have also removed the windshield and taken it to a glass repair shop, as there were cracks in the window. I am in the process of getting the last of the decals off of the boat and taking off all of the chrome hardware to prepare it for sanding, which I think is the first step.

The first question that I ask all of the very knowledgeable members are; where can I find a variable speed sander, as I live in Canada, and only have access to Home Hardware, Home Depot, and Canadian Tire. If someone can recommend the make and brand as well as the proper grit sand paper as well as any other products I need to work on the stress cracks with, it would be very much appreciated and helpful, as I have no clue lol.

Thank you in advance to all of the helpful comments that I will hopefully get and I will make sure to post pics at every stage of the process, mainly to show in case I'm messing up lol....

Rachel

Newboatguy,

WELCOME ABOARD. SADLY, I know ZILCH about your boat.

yours, satx

Do you have compressed air? You can always mail-order from a number of places. OH By the way ,WELCOME ABOARD.

Rachel welcome aboard. The round 5" orbital sander is my "weapon of choice" these days, I've found it works much better that the rectangular pad sander I had been using. Mine came from Harbor Freight which can be bought online, but any local supply house should have an "economy model" that would work just fine. Name brand better quality models will last longer especially if used regularly, but for hobbyist usage the cheaper units usually work just as well.

I usually start with 150 grit and work my way back to 220 or 300 grit. Just depends on how much material you have to take off. A small 4" or 4 1/2" grinder with 36-40 grit flapper discs also comes in handy when you have a lot of clean up to do removing old glass work, fillets, etc..

The oscillating "multi tool" will also prove a very valuable and useful tool, once you get one and work with it for a while you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.

Some folks have good success grinding out the "crazing" (spider cracks) into a v shape and filling with marine filler and fiberglass strands for reinforcement - commonly called kitty hair. Others find grinding the gel coat down to bare fiberglass then fairing it out to be the preferred method.

Make sure you wear a respirator to protect your lungs, and some good safety goggles for the eyes - the fiberglass dust can wreak havoc if you inhale it! When heavy grinding is in order you may want to invest in a couple of tyvec suits, they help keep the dust off your skin. That stuff itches like crazy especially if you're sweating when exposed. Good luck, take plenty of pics and don't be afraid to ask questions - we're here to help!

Welcome
As far as sanders go everyone will have there favorites. Here is what I recommend.
If you have a very good air compressor you can use a palm sander or a DA. Takes a good compressor to keep up with these tools.
Next there are many many electric sanders out there. I like my electric better than my air. Less noise for the main reason other reason if your friends happen to be foolish enough to want to help you sand you can run more sanders on electric.
The big box stores have what you need. But get a six inch variable speed. Rigid is one kind I have it was less than one hundred dollars works just fine but does have Some vibe ration. My favorite is a Bosch ROS65VC. VERY little vibration vacuuming system works pretty good. You can sand all day and stay clean and your hands do not hurt when you are done.
All these have a hook up to hook to a vacuum system.
For grinding gel I use 36 grit if you can find it. But 40 grit is easier to find. Make sure you get the correct paper for the sander you buy.Most will be hook and loop. But be sure to get paper with holes in so the vacuuming works.
If you have trouble places that sell auto body supplies have or can get you what you need. Paper is not cheap you may want to buy a box of it usually 50 pieces to the box.Check out paper on line to.
Invite your friends over!!

D

Awesome advice. Just do not use a belt sander!

I'd also suggest using the finer sandpaper (150 - 200 grit) to practice with before you actually start grinding. Even 150 can get you into trouble quick depending on how thick the gel coat is.

The heavier (lower number) the grit, the faster it works, and so the quicker you can get into trouble so be careful.

DA sanders (Dual Action) work great. As mentioned, for most of these, HF tools can work just fine. The one thing I would not cheap out on is the sandpaper. The quality stuff, i.e. 3M and folks here have mentioned others in the past, makes a big difference. Take it from a cheapo. for many years I used crappy paper until i read on here otherwise. I got the good paper, at about 1.5x the price, but it lasted WAAYYY longer and worked better.

I don't have a DA yet. But I have the quarter sheet sanders. I bought a 20# bargain box from Klingspor and cut my own sheets.
I sanded my entire house (wood siding) with this stuff. The Klingspor drop off belt pieces in the bargain box wear like iron. I did't even use a 1/4 of the box, to get the house sanded to bare wood ! To me ? this was well worth the cost.....

www.woodworkingshop.com/product/bb00006/

Thank you for taking the time to read and reply to this post, and I checked out variable speed 5 inch round sanders today at home Depot and they are not that expensive. I wanted to find out if I should start with a very fine grit and will that work on the several deep cracks or if I should just go ahead and get a course grit to take care of the cracks and do I have to use a compound after I sand and what do you recommend?

looks to me like you will have to take most of the gell coat off to get those cracks out....you will either have to re gell coat or paint, so no need to compound until it's repainted....I would go with a 6" da sander...john

Here's my 2 cents! Spider Cracking is one of the most problematic issues for gel coat repair. If you want to ensure longevity in the repair then you must either remove it all and start from scratch or at the very least repair each individual vein of the cracking. The latter is very tedious and time consuming and does not guarantee that the cracking will not reappear. If you have extensive areas of deep spider cracking then total removal of the gel coat and re-application would probably be your best bet. If the SC is more isolated then Spot Repairs might be the way to go using a V-Bit and a dremel tool. If you decide to remove it all then a 4 1/2" grinder with 36-40 grit resin coated discs would be my tool of choice. You don't have to "Baby" the gel coat. You want to get it off and down to the glass as quickly as possible. The underlying glass is pretty tough stuff and the 36 grit abrasive is not going to do damage to it. You'll be able to see the glass and know when to move on. It'll be a pinkish color. Proper PPE IS required. The Dust will be incredible and you don't want to breathe it. A full Cover Tyvek Suit, with gloves and goggles are a must as well. Again, just my 2 cents on how I'd attack the situation.

The dremel tool approach works sometimes...sometimes it doesn't. For some reason, the spider cracks seem to reappear under dark paint...black and navy blue. Maybe the heat? Whatever. Flamingo has the foolproof approach: remove all of the gelcoat. A few things to remember:

Anything worth having is worth suffering to acquire.
Any form of vintage boating is better than golf.
Catholic girls are easiest right after confession.
Wet birds don't fly at night.

Thanks for the advice, and I have a dremal tool and I wanted to ask if there is a special attachment for grinding down the gel coat and if I take it all the way to the glass, what do I use as the filler?
The majority of the spider cracks are on the top and are white so do I have to use glass and resin to fill or what about some kind oof filler product and one more question that I have is what grain of sand paper do I use on the rest of the boat as it is faded and dull. I've been reading about wet sanding but I'm unsure of the right grit to start out with?

Thanks again for the great advice!

Rachel

Hi Newboatguy, Welcome Aboard. I am also new to this sight and going to let you know there is a lot of good helpful people on here.

Sorry I don't have much on how to fix fiberglass but it looks like a lot of people have stepped in to give advice. Let us know any other problems you have and I’m sure someone can help you.

More pics of your boat will be nice. We like to see lots of pics.

Also wanted to ask if I want to sand the whole boat should I use the disk sander you recommend and what grain to use so I can restore but not remove the gel coat?

Newboatguy,

After you remove all the old gelcoat down to bare fiberglass, you MAY find that the wasn't the WHOLE problem.
MANY of "our boats" are nearing 50-70 years old & MAY have stress cracks that go into the fiberglass, as well as the surface "spider cracks".

IF that is the case, clean out the cracks & fill them with a coat of un-thinned epoxy resin, followed with epoxy thickened to the consistency of heavy cream or "peanut butter", allow to fully cure & sand down to a smooth finish & then refinish with your choice of paints.
(LOTS of our members use RUSTOLEUM, with hardener added. - That paint will roll-on & will "flow out smooth", if "tipped off" by a helper armed with a suitable paint brush.)

BEST WISHES on your first restoration.

yours, satx

A few things to note. Since your boat is an 87' model I doubt that the spider cracking extends into the fiberglass but, if it does, and you want to re-coat the boat with Gel Coat I would not recommend using epoxy to fill the cracks. Gel Coat is not very compatible with epoxy. Since Gel Coat is a polyester resin based product you should use polyester based fillers to do your repairs. If however, you want to Paint the boat the epoxy would be a good choice to do the repairs. If you choose to just dremel out the SC's and repair them then just mix up some Gel Coat paste (Gel Coat thickened with Cabosil) and after washing the cracks with Acetone fill them with the paste and then sand smooth with 220 grit. For sanding the rest of the boat I'd recommend starting wet sanding @ 600 grit using "Wet Water" (Water with dish soap in it) and progressively working up to 1000 grit. Then use a power polisher with Polishing Compound. She should come to a nice high lustre doing this.