TOPIC: Ribs in gelcoat

I am going to have the gelcoat on the deck of the Glastron media blasted off. Ultimately this will make the whole process a lot easier. The question I have is about a series of ribs, approximately 1/8" to 1/4" deep and 3/8" wide at various parts of the deck. These are in the gelcoat and could easily be lost after blasting. What is the best way of doing this? One thought I had was to grind this into the fiberglass. Since it is fairly shallow, I didn't think it would have a big structural impact.

I have the same dilemma, only mine is the deck pin stripe pattern. I removed all the gelcoat down to the fiberglass, and am left with a very shallow pattern. I am going to fill and fair the entire deck, so I will lose the pattern alltogether. However, I did a pencil rub of the entire hull before I removed the gelcoat. So I have a pattern to go by. After I fill and fair the deck, I am going to try a very shallow router bit and cut it into the fairing compound. Any other suggestions out there?

You're going to loose it when the gel comes off- Or most of it, anyways. Lots of the 'details' on these boats is just in the Gel Coat.

You probably arent going to want to route directly into the fiberglass- Even though it's not that deep, the glass is often VERY thin. You can put a layer on the top of fairing compound or something like that, and route into that. I can't personally imagine doing that and having it come out right, but That's just me. My lines would be all over the place!

You COULD just paint on the details...

-Andrew

I would think cutting into the fiberglass would weeken it, like kurf cutting a piece of wood to make it bend more. Adding a material to replace the lost gel cote would be the way to go. Laminating sheet balsa, cut to size first, would be my 1st choice. Leaving gaps where needed rather than trying to cut after.

This was done with flooring surfaced down to 3/16" over the plywood deck skin. www.woodslinger.com/boat

CAT*FIN*k, is that your boat. Beautiful job..

My thought on cutting was to put a couple layers of cloth on the back for reinforcement, under where I might be doing it. I also thought that this should probably be done by hand. Too many chances for mistakes with power tools on details like this. Perhaps I could cut it with the edge of a file, if I could find the right size. Obviously clamp a guide to get a straight line.

A wood carver's gouge would be my tool of choice.