Here are a couple of "before" shots. There were "voids" under the original gel-coat that allowed all the cracking to get started.
Sorry for all the shadows....but the daylight was waning!
We used a Dremel to route out the voids and cracks down thru the gel coat down to good, hard fiberglass.
Then we filled the routed out areas with an waterproof epoxy filler. After an overnight cure, much sanding was then accomplished!!
Closeup of the filled cracks. Next step was to paint on the new gel coat.
The idea was to paint a nice thick coat of gel coat and "feather" the edges so that it would not be very noticeable.
We were all ready to do the gel coat, with a brand new can of West Marine finish gel coat. When we mixed the catalyst - just 1 drop congealed the entire mixture!! We tried two different cans - free of charge thanks, West Marine....same result. So, this is as far as we got. West Marine is investigating the cans to figure out what is wrong......
We'll bring a different brand down with us next time. We cleaned up the window and it's fine for now.
We also did a similar larger repair near one of the jib sheet blocks. I forgot to snap a photo before, but the this is a photo of the similar, opposite side ....(we only did the port side repairs this time - starboard side next time!)
The big "star" crack in the gel coat peeled away a large area. We peeled it back until the remaining gel coat was firmly attached to the fiberglass. Here we're starting to trowel on the epoxy filler.
Smoothed a bit and left overnight to cure.
Again, much sanding so that you couldn't hardly feel the repair.
Again, taped and ready for the gel coat that didn't happen. More later when we get some good-formula gel coat!!
