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Old 01-07-2009, 05:36 PM   #1
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Country: Spain
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Stress cracks??

Bit of advice please?!?! i have just picked up an old P21, it has been sat round for ages so thought i had better put her back into action.......trouble is she has more stress cracks then i have ever seen?!?!
had loads of advice from different people and have repaired many boats usaully grind out the crack and re-gelcoat.
But there are so many it would take months....literally! so should i grind out the worst fill with a flexable car body filler the spray it with 2 pack??
persist and re-gelcoat all the crack and then paint it? would normal car body filler do if it is to be painted??
could i leave them if it is painted in 2 packed? there gunna come back right??
I have never painted a boat before always repaired the gelcoat?
So any advice would be great thanks.
Matt
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Old 01-07-2009, 07:48 PM   #2
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if its just cracks in the gelcoat i just leave them on my boats, maybe some pictures of yours would help?
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Old 01-07-2009, 08:07 PM   #3
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it is just stress cracks , but the boat needs painting as it has been left for so long so dont want to go to the hassle of painting it for them to come back straight away?!?!?!
I will get some pics!
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Old 01-07-2009, 08:31 PM   #4
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oh right i didnt realize you were painting the boat, yeah i suppose some sort of gelcoat filler would have to do if theres too many, others on here will probably suggest a better option
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Old 01-07-2009, 10:45 PM   #5
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Personally i wouldn't use anything other than an epoxy filler. If there's stress cracks there already it's because that's an area under strain, any lesser filler will just pop back out again.
With the extent of the cracking you describe i really wonder if it's worth your while doing it at all?
Another option that may work could be to flowcoat the whole boat (with a few coats) instead of spraying. That way you could rub it down to hide the cracks? Really not sure on that though, not something i've ever considered doing, just trying to think outside of the box!
For the amount of cost and time involved, wouldn't it be easier just to get a better hull? I'm pretty sure whatever you do they'll come back after a few month's use.

James
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Old 02-07-2009, 08:54 AM   #6
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Thought about epoxy but is very hard and brittle so would crack quicker ? may be?? and not sure how epoxy bonds to polyester?? anyone?
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Old 02-07-2009, 07:38 PM   #7
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IMO epoxy will bond better and resist cracking more than any other alternative.

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Old 02-07-2009, 09:14 PM   #8
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.........

This is what i Do to the stress-cracks, the ones above the waterline i use Epoxi filler on, and it works well.

As for the ones under the water-line i use Gelcoat, witch I add Aerosil to to make it into a paste and fill in-I prefer to fix the gelcoat-cracks under water with new gelcoat.

Before filling this stuff back in I use a Dremel with a tiny 3mm bit to get a nice V-slot in the cracks to lay the filler in.

Then sand smooth 200-600-1000-1500-2000-polish
If the boat is going to be painted after-like mine, you can usually stop with the 600grit.

Time-consuming work but turns out nice in the end.
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Old 02-07-2009, 09:32 PM   #9
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yeh thats what i usaully do!!! thought there might be an easy way out but no?!?!?!
this project may take a little longer than thought!!!!
thanks guys
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