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sunlounger xl155

Repair, or reconstruction. Gelocat or structural fiberglass. If it's hull related, you'll find it here

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jimmymoon
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sunlounger xl155

Post by jimmymoon » Tue May 10, 2011 10:22 pm

well i dont know why i said it was a 135 its a 155 sunlounger, and has anyone ever used the evercoat gelcoat repair polyester 2 part mix?

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Bill Basler
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Location: Cedar Rapids, IA

Post by Bill Basler » Tue May 10, 2011 11:14 pm

Yes, I have.
Bill Basler

jimmymoon
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Post by jimmymoon » Wed May 11, 2011 7:35 am

how were the results? did you like it?

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Bill Basler
Posts: 1996
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2005 4:48 pm
Location: Cedar Rapids, IA

Post by Bill Basler » Wed May 11, 2011 9:18 am

Jimmy, results were good. I will say that I had had some experience doing fiberglass work, doing plugs, molds and part layup. I also spent some time as a custom painter in a street rod shop so that helped with some of the basics.

If this is in regards to the small ding on the chine that you are needing to repair, the first thing you are going to do is prep the ding. I use a Dremel tool with a dovetail shaped carbide cutter to scour of the surrounding walls of the ding. In the process I would give the edges a slight undercut.

Scrub everything out very well with Acetone. Get an old toothbrush and go at it. Get every trace of dust and contaminants out.

The hardest part of the whole process is color match. Your white in your patch kit may look right as compared to the hull, but there is almost always some tinting needed. You will use "micro" amounts of the other colors....and I mean, a flyspeck of colorant to a teaspoon of white.

Once you have a color that is dead on, just follow the directions in the kit. Mix in the hardener, and apply using a popsicle stick or similar. Make sure you get the gelcoat into the undercut areas.

Once you have the gouge slightly overfilled, you will typically top it off with a small of special plastic included in the kit. Your patch will cure harder and faster with this plastic in place. Once cured, you will peel the plastic off.

From there you will wet sand starting out with 320, then 400, then 600, then 1000. Use the coarser grits for rough shaping of the patch. As you get closer to the surface of the original gelcoat, you should be down to about 600 grit.

Going from 600 to 1000 you are basically removing very small sand scratches.

Once you get to 1000, you should be able to use a coarse rubbing compound followed by a fine rubbing compound of glaze.

If this sounds like a lot of work, it's really not that bad. For a ding the size of the one your are repairing, you'll spend a few hours. And some of that time is waiting for the gelcoat to cure hard.
Bill Basler

jimmymoon
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Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:51 pm
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Post by jimmymoon » Wed May 11, 2011 9:27 pm

thanks bill, I fount more dings and nicks with a closer look at the boat, I filled everyone in and then it was so hard to even tell when the dings and nickes were but if you look hard enough you can see em but from 5 feet away not noticeable at all, so i just wet sanded the whole boat down with 2000 grit sand paper then waxed it and i tell you it looks like it is brand new, now its time to tackle the inside of this beast!

jimmymoon
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Post by jimmymoon » Wed May 11, 2011 9:30 pm

Image

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