Deck Cracks, belt sander
Moderator: Jim Walsh
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Barry
Deck Cracks, belt sander
It is no surprise that my '81 CD33 has stress cracks in the non skid. In other areas, mainly the stanchion gate & behind the helm, the gel coat has also worn thin. The yard has recommended that the entire non skid be belt sanded smooth (thinned down - they say it's too thick), the cracks gouged out, faired, then the whole surface be expoied with a "spackle" roller. It seams to make sense to me, any comments?
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Bob Ohler
Re: Deck Cracks, belt sander
A belt sander can very aggressive if you're going to do the job yourself. IF you're doing it yourself, I'd suggest a good orbital sander, with maybe 80 grit paper, and a GOOD dust mask!
Bob Ohler
bobohler@chesapeake.net
Bob Ohler
bobohler@chesapeake.net
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Bob Ohler
Re: Deck Cracks, belt sander
A belt sander can very aggressive if you're going to do the job yourself. IF you're doing it yourself, I'd suggest a good orbital sander, with maybe 80 grit paper, and a GOOD dust mask!
Bob Ohler
bobohler@chesapeake.net
Bob Ohler
bobohler@chesapeake.net
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Matt Cawthorne
Re: Deck Cracks, belt sander?
Barry,
My '82 CD36 had about 6 good sized gelcoat cracks on the port side deck near the lifeline gates when I bought it about 5 years ago. I had the yard that the boat was in repair them. They botched the job in every possible way. I never was billed for the job. I guess that they were too embarrassed about the job. The job left streaks of non matching gelcoat all over that 2 square foot area. I recently decided to try and fix it. The number of cracks has grown to about 60, most are small (less than 1/2 inch) I sent some chips off to Gel Coat products and got back 1 can of liquid gel coat and 1 can of cream gel coat which were supposedly matched to the chips. This weekend I started using Dana's procedure with the x-acto knife. I soon learned that this process would take forever. I went to using an old style can opener (the kind which punches triangular holes in can tops). My can opener was very sharp. I scraped out the cracks, but perhaps not deep enough considering what I just read from his latest post. I used the liquid gelcoat in a syringe to fill up the cracks, leaving a healthy gob on top. When the gelcoat hardened I used a surform tool (like a fine cheese grater) to knock off the gobs. I then used a palm sander with 80 grit paper to smooth the deck down. I masked off the non-skid. I then applied the cream gelcoat (after mixing in the catalyst) in a thin layer. I used a paper towel to blot the surface. to match the old surface. If the gelcoat layer is thick the match is poor with a very wide pattern and tall peaks. A thin layer leaves a nice pattern. The job looks great except that the color match is not exact. The gelcoat will supposedly fade to match the old gelcoat, but I would recommend doing complete areas with the white borders. You can see the discontinuity where I tried to fade one area into another. I believe that the area will crack again some day. If it happens too quick I will sand down farther next time, fill the cracks, and then add a thin layer of glass cloth to the surface before re-gelcoating. Check back with me in a year and I will give an update.
I still have not tried to fix the cracks in the smooth white areas. They are relatively few.
Let us know what you try and how it works.
Matt
Mcawthor@bellatlantic.net
My '82 CD36 had about 6 good sized gelcoat cracks on the port side deck near the lifeline gates when I bought it about 5 years ago. I had the yard that the boat was in repair them. They botched the job in every possible way. I never was billed for the job. I guess that they were too embarrassed about the job. The job left streaks of non matching gelcoat all over that 2 square foot area. I recently decided to try and fix it. The number of cracks has grown to about 60, most are small (less than 1/2 inch) I sent some chips off to Gel Coat products and got back 1 can of liquid gel coat and 1 can of cream gel coat which were supposedly matched to the chips. This weekend I started using Dana's procedure with the x-acto knife. I soon learned that this process would take forever. I went to using an old style can opener (the kind which punches triangular holes in can tops). My can opener was very sharp. I scraped out the cracks, but perhaps not deep enough considering what I just read from his latest post. I used the liquid gelcoat in a syringe to fill up the cracks, leaving a healthy gob on top. When the gelcoat hardened I used a surform tool (like a fine cheese grater) to knock off the gobs. I then used a palm sander with 80 grit paper to smooth the deck down. I masked off the non-skid. I then applied the cream gelcoat (after mixing in the catalyst) in a thin layer. I used a paper towel to blot the surface. to match the old surface. If the gelcoat layer is thick the match is poor with a very wide pattern and tall peaks. A thin layer leaves a nice pattern. The job looks great except that the color match is not exact. The gelcoat will supposedly fade to match the old gelcoat, but I would recommend doing complete areas with the white borders. You can see the discontinuity where I tried to fade one area into another. I believe that the area will crack again some day. If it happens too quick I will sand down farther next time, fill the cracks, and then add a thin layer of glass cloth to the surface before re-gelcoating. Check back with me in a year and I will give an update.
I still have not tried to fix the cracks in the smooth white areas. They are relatively few.
Let us know what you try and how it works.
Matt
Barry wrote: It is no surprise that my '81 CD33 has stress cracks in the non skid. In other areas, mainly the stanchion gate & behind the helm, the gel coat has also worn thin. The yard has recommended that the entire non skid be belt sanded smooth (thinned down - they say it's too thick), the cracks gouged out, faired, then the whole surface be expoied with a "spackle" roller. It seams to make sense to me, any comments?
Mcawthor@bellatlantic.net