o fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
So fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, fix it.

I have to admit it. I was terrorized at the thought of doing all the repairs on my Rockpool Alaw Bach. I had taken my first tentative steps into gelcoat repairs last year and had good success, but that was on a white hull. The idea of working with black and sparkles seemed way out of my league.

I decided to start simply enough and work on the hull. We’ve all heard before that black gelcoat really shows the scratches and that’s very true. It does not take long for the glossy black coat to become a mixture of black gloss, white stripes and dull gray. It’s hard to imagine how you can repair the deep gouges and spider cracks without just adding to the mess. Well, I’m happy to tell you now it goes much better than I would have imagined. It comes down to expectations and the right tools.

The expectations part is easy. Well, once you get over it. Old beat kayaks are signs of experience. Respectable. You will never, and don’t really want to make them look like new again. With time and effort you may be able to make a repair invisible, but life is short. With a lot less time you can make the repair solid and ALMOST invisible. That works for me. If you accept that perfection has scars this whole process goes much better.

Repairing Gelcoat is not a difficult thing. It does take a bit of time, but not all that much and you certainly don’t have to be a fan of “This Old House” to do a good job. At the bottom of the post I’ll give you some good links to walk you through. As you know by now I’m much more into the experience than the brass tacks. . . Basically you just clean out the damage, fill it with new gelcoat, sand and buff. By cleaning out the damage I mean actually chipping out the loose or weak gel, then sanding down the edges so the gel has something to stick to. I found that my trusty Dremel was perfect for creating nice clean repairs. Obviously you have to be careful not to damage the fiberglass underneath.

First thing I did was remove most of the stickers and lettering from the boat. Sorry Mike, but they were in pretty sad shape anyway and were just going to get in the way. (Dear, Rockpool please send new stickers. . . .) Then I took a pretty detailed survey of the hull damage. There were actually more places that needed repair than I had thought! I didn’t bother with slight spider cracks and scratches, just real damage. I marked them all off went about preparing them all in one go.

Now I know I’d give real craftsman a heart attack. I’m not too fussy and a tad impatient. It’s a good idea to put masking tape around all the repairs. However, my hull is trashed and I’ve learned that in the end it will all clean up quite well. So I skipped the tape. . Now, It’s a good plan to wear gloves and use a mask. It get’s smelly and the fumes are not healthy.

First I removed any of the loose stuff, then I took the Dremel and routed them out until I had a nice clean area to fill. Once that was done I cleaned them all out with Acetone.

The next step was simply mixing up the new Gel. To deal with the hull I used a clear polyester gel-paste which just seems easier to work with than the runny stuff. I wanted to mix up a batch to cover all the repairs with a consistent color. I started with 4 teaspoons which goes a long way and was more than enough for the hull. You have to experiment with the amount of coloring agent to add, but black is pretty simple and I had my mix in just a couple minutes.

Once I had my black gel coat I would take just one teaspoon at a time and mix with the hardener. Regardless of all the advice out there you sort of have to guess at the amount of hardener to add. In my case about 6-8 drops per teaspoon seemed to give me enough working time. In fact after I mixed it, I still held off on the repairs just a bit to let the gelcoat thicken just a bit more. You have to be careful here. If it’s too thick you can’t work with it, but if it’s runny you’ll have a mess on your hands. . (and everywhere else).

(new “patch” hardening off before it’s sanded down)

Well, now comes the fun part. To fill the damaged area I used a combination of “tools”. An old spatula, a straw with a funny spoon-like end, and a bit of a plastic bubble pack for a straight edge. The guys who are good at this suggest plastic spreaders and popsicle sticks. If the “hole” is really deep you may want to do the repair in layers. Otherwise it will take a long time to harden. They other problem is that you can get little air bubbles that seem to never want to work out, or that will hide only to rise to the surface later and leave new holes for you to fill when the repair dries. The biggest mistake here is to not use enough gelcoat. As it drys it tends to shrink. So if you try to get a perfectly smooth repair here you will most likely end up with a depression (both in the hull and psychologically). You are better off just glopping it on and sanding down the excess later. I loved the pictures from Point 65. He went crazy with the gelcoat and it still comes out beautifully!

Once all the repairs were done I just walk away and clean up my mess. The can said it takes about an hour to dry. In my case the repairs will still tacky after more than 2 hours however It’s a bit cool and humid around here. Regardless you want to wait for the repairs to harden before working with them. Eventually the repairs did harden off. Once they did I got out 400, 600, 800, & 1000 grit wet/dry sand paper and began the work of smoothing them out. I began with the bow section of my 3-piece kayak.

I used a bit of mini-cell for a sanding block since it’s flexible and works well on the curved shape of a boat. I’d start off with 400 or 600 grit sandpaper, then work progressively toward the 1000 grit, keeping the area wet all the time with a sponge and a bucket. Each progression smoothes out the last. Now, if you sit back and let the water evaporate you WILL have a heart attack!! Yeah, the repair may be smooth but you’ve also taken all the gloss off the boat. It looks like you killed it!! That’s one reason the big boys suggest masking tape. But like I said, this is the hull and I was prepared for this ugly eventuality.

Now comes the bit where all your terror pays off. I invested in a rotary buffer which like my Dremel, makes me glad I bought it each time I sit down to do this stuff. (For what it’s worth a “buffer” is a bit more aggressive than a “polisher”) First I went over the repairs (and must of the hull as well) with a light buffing compound. I spent a good amount of time on this actually. Once that was done, I changed pads and finished up with that nice fuzzy polishing pad. My black glossy hull had returned!!!

Of course the repaired bow section does not look perfect. Not up close. But from a couple feet away you’d never know I’d repaired it. Now with a bit more time and effort I’m fairly sure I could make the repairs invisible. Thing is, in a day or two I’m going to scratch the hell out of it all over again. So when you repair your kayak you have to look at your priorities and measure perfection.

Today I move on to the hard part, the glittery deck. I began a test area already. Where a chuck was taken out near the tail which is black with glitter, I followed the same process except I intentionally put only a small amount of black gelcoat to act as a background. Then sprinkled it with glitter. This morning it dried and shrunk down into the repair area. The next step is to complete the repair with a layer of clear gelcoat over the top. I’ll let you know how that goes.

From there I move on to the big problem area and will take on my first shot at fibreglassing. Now THAT sounds fun!!

More On Gelcoat Repair

• http://www.roguepaddler.com/gelcoat.htm
• Bryan Day’s Sea Kayaker Magazine article

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