Adventure 20 hatch and gel coat repair

[MooseheadDoc]

Over the next few weeks I am working on repairing the accumulated wear, tear, and minor damage to the hatches on my ‘93 Adventure 20. The purpose of posting is both to seek input and share experience with other members. There are many other excellent, similar threads on the forum.

As a frame of reference:
- I am not an expert. I’m not even an experienced amateur. I’m just a willing boat owner who likes to work on non-critical stuff myself for fun and experience. I am starting out only with the information I have read on this forum and other web resources.
- my goal is to prevent the problems from getting worse, and to improve the cosmetics a little. I’m not shooting for showroom quality.

Tools and materials:
- I’m working in my unheated garage in Northern Maine. Temperature will soon start to affect product selection and performance.
- I have a few basic tools- sander, dremmel, buffer
- I have white gelcoat with pigments, bondo filler, fiberglass mat/resin, finish glaze/polish

Attached are pictures from Step 1. I am starting with the 2 hatches from the bait/storage wells behind the helm seats. The first photos show the hatches in place and some of the gel coat damage. Most of this is probably moisture related. There is no wood in the hatches. They are fiberglass and gel coat. The gel coat does not cover the rims of the hatches. It looks like the fiberglass absorbed water in places, swelled/froze, and split the gel coat. The screw areas are in decent shape. There are some larger chips, presumably from impacts. The next pictures are taken after I used the dremmel grinder to bore out the stress cracks and remove chipping gel coat.

How would you proceed? I’ll post again when I’ve completed the next step.

Thanks for any feedback... JB

 

[MooseheadDoc]

Update #1: Lessons learned so far

1. The second hatch will come out better
2. I was too selective about sanding and grinding the first time around. where there are more than a few cracks I think it will be easier to grind/sand it down to fiberglass and build up evenly, rather than fill many chips and channels
3. On some areas I went straight to gel coat, in others I tried a filler first. I think the filler will prove easier to work with.
4. On the section with the greatest damage (loss of fiberglass structure, not just gel coat), I am trying to create a fiberglass backing, and will then try building up with filler. We’ll see...
5. I am working in an unheated garage in Maine in October. Temps are at the low-end of the product recommendations. A blow-dryer to accelerate catalyst action proved very useful today.
6. Considering Spectrum matched color gel coat patch for isolated sections
7. Considering repairing with filler and covering with a color-matched polyurethane paint instead of gel coat.

A fun, small scale project. I’m willing to experiment with different products and techniques. So far I haven’t made any mistakes that I can’t simply grind back down to my starting point and try again.

 

[MooseheadDoc]

Slowly getting the hang of it.

The section that required some rebuilding seems to be working out. If the photos are in correct order, they should show the fiberglass backing (only 2 layers of cloth), followed by a heavy coat of filler, followed by the first-pass sanding to restore shape.

Based on this I’m going back and using the filler more liberally to smooth out other area.

Once reshaped and smoothed I think I’ll do a ‘compare and contrast’- resurface one hatch with gel coat, and try a polyurethane topside paint on the other....

 

[MooseheadDoc]

Hatch #1 nearly done.

Lightly sanded 1st coat of gelcoat. Remasked and applied coat #2.

As above, I’m not too worried about cosmetics, so precise color matching wasn’t a big deal. But to minimize any contrast I did 2 things. First, I added a little pigment to the White Evercoat (from a small no-name patch kit I had from an old jet ski repair). To 1 ounce of gel coat I added a very small (1/2 a grain of rice small) dab of brown and yellow. This tinted to off-white just a little. Second, I masked the hatch around the non-skid pattern where there is already a transition, so any color difference almost looks intentional.

After the second coat I applied Evercoat PVA mold release per instructions. The directions were a little vague, so I had no idea what to expect. I applied it about 1 hour after the gelcoat while it was still quite tacky, but starting to set up (keeping in mind my relatively cool, damp environment). It is about dish soap consistency. It painted on easily and dried quickly to a thin, rubbery coating. One of the pics shows it dry, with a light purple tinge. When all was fully cured it washed off easily with warm water, soap and sponge.

The results will suit my needs just fine. I will probably do a little more finish work- I have some fine wet/dry sandpaper and gel coat polish- but overall It was simple and worth the effort. For anyone with more skill/experience and a more hospitable environment (warmer climate and/or heated garage) it would be easy to get an even better result.

If I try Hatch #2 with the urethane topside paint, rather than repeating this process, I’ll post a comparison.

 

[trapper]

Looking good! I am about to try a few ding and scratch repairs on my 208. Just wondering what kind of pigment you used in colouring your gelcoat. Having a bit of a time getting the Spectrum paste into Canada, over $100 CDN for 2 oz. delivered ....ouch, so searching out alternatives.

 

[MooseheadDoc]

I bought a kit almost identical to this about 6 years ago to repair some dings in my Seadoo Jet Ski. It was bright red, and matching the shade was a bugger. I still had the materials sitting in my boat supply bin so I tried using the unopened pigments in my current repair. It was impressive how little pigment it takes to change the tone of the bright white. I found this package on a quick Amazon search. It might be cheaper from another source. Good luck...........JB

 

[MooseheadDoc]

Also, I used the included paste for small chips/patches with good results. For the current project with larger surfaces I was using a different Evercoat product. The paste in the kit is a clear, toothpaste-consistency gel. The product I used in the pint container is bright white and much thinner consistency (maple syrup?).

 

[glacierbaze]

What kind pf mask are you using, doing all that grinding and sanding in your garage?

 

[Sdfish]

Great looking fix Moose! Very impressed and I am sure it was a fun project! Nicely done!

 

[MooseheadDoc]

What kind pf mask are you using, doing all that grinding and sanding in your garage?

Good question. I use a 3M paint respirator (home depot version) for the paint/solvent work, and an N95 when sanding. I do the power sanding/dremmel grinding outdoors as much as possible, and the hand sanding on the bench with the N95.

 

[PNW_Drifter]

I did this same job last winter in my unheated garage. I built a tiny booth with ventilation and heat in the middle. It was s 4' x 8' space with a table inside. Lookup DIY paint booth on youtube. cost about $50. Fiberlay near me will make custom gelcoat quarts for $77.

 

[DogBone]

I have found when tinting gelcoat or marine-tex, brown is the only color I need. I tried yellow and I couldn't get it right. You are correct, very surprising how little tint you need. I have several hatches that need I need to do, thanks for posting your progress and steps.

 

[trapper]

Thanks for the info on color and gelcoat.

 

[loufoss]

Good job, looks very similar to my boat 1995 seafarer. I paid a fiberglass guy 900 bucks a few years ago and the next year it all chipped and cracked again ?? Grady used some kind of Filler material for those few years and it was a disaster. I hope the work you did will hold up for many years.. good luck

 

[MooseheadDoc]

Yeah, durability is a big question mark at this point! I was even more aggressive sanding down the second hatch. It will be interesting to see how the different products/techniques hold up- filler vs gelcoat vs epoxy paint.

 

[MooseheadDoc]

Final results: The 'before' pix are in the original post. Here are the 'after' pix. (port side done with fiberglass/gel-kote, starboard with Bondo filler and epoxy paint).

Overall I'm pleased with the result. As I said, I have zero experience with fiberglass or body work. The fiberglass, bondo filler, gel-kote, and even epoxy paint were new products for me. Resources online were great (esp YouTube videos). If I did it a second time it would come out better. Definitely makes me comfortable tackling other small cosmetic projects on the boat. A fun DIY project.

In the end I would say the filler with epoxy paint was a little easier and quicker, but the fiberglass with gel-kote repair came out a little better. I used a 1-part marine epoxy paint in a stock color ("Hatteras White"). It is a little more beige than the original color, but acceptable. Color matching the gel-kote with pigment was pretty easy with a little trial and error.

Joe