Very poor ttop finish

[userchag]

Just got my new 236 fisherman and was shocked to see the under edge of my ttop. I have not seen such poor workmanship on any boat let alone the great Grady White. I have called corporate twice but get passed off to the dealer. For this much money they get no benefit of the doubt.

Cecil

 

[seasick]

I agree, that's terrible. It looks like the edge is exposed ( non glassed ) coring with some paint of gel coat poorly painted on.
Have you spoken to the dealer? That would be the normal channel to go through. See what they say and offer as a resolution. If not satisfied, then escalate to corporate..


Another example of the ever increasing cases of poor workmanship IMO.

 

[JMAT]

I just took delivery of a 325 Freedom back in February. I had a hole in the about 1' wide about the gelcoat just above the windshield. Surprised it ever made it out of QC. I have a really good dealer down here in South Florida and he brought it to my attention upon delivery. My dealer took care of it on my 20 hour service. When they started working on it, it turned out to be a 14" void behind the gelcoat. They had it fixed in a few days now it's rock solid. So yes I would contact your dealer about the issue.

As far as Grady's customer service, I have left their customer service 3 voice mails and sent an email to find out where a stereo amplifier may be located and I still have not heard back from them. So much for great customer service.

 

[Pat Hurley]

That's absofrigginlutely Horrible !! A sign of the times I suppose. No way I would tolerate that nonsense. That's some backyard chickencoop workmanship there.

You would think in this day and age GW would have stepped it up a notch, build a more modern looking T top like Regulator's surfboard edge finish.

 

[Hookup1]

I'm dealing with an older boat. A 1997 Islander 268. Top is off the boat on a jig waiting for me to refinish. Gel coat is breaking down. Edges are potato chipping. Mold on top. Chalky.

Yes - the inside edge is a problem. They build them from the outside-in using a mold. GW should pay more attention to the finish of that inside edge.

I'm going to round the edges and apply two layers of glass cloth. Refinish the top inside and out.

All the hatches have the same problem.

 

[DennisG01]

Yes, poor quality control there. Should have been addressed before it left the factory or at the dealer. However, at this point, that's all a moot point. Getting it fixed right is the goal.

Your first step should always be to talk with the dealer. They are your ally here in helping to get this resolved. You wouldn't call Ford directly, right? Your dealer needs to know about this and they can submit for warranty coverage.

 

[SeanC]

New bow pulpit, not mounted on the boat yet. The 2 cracks are from thumb pressure on a section of gelcoat that hadn’t bonded to the fibreglass. Disappointing. QC does seem to be an issue.

 

[Fishtales]

Some of that is dealer prep stuff and some manufacturing issues for sure. The edge of the hardtop is just like the lids. Looks like the gelcoat is thin as well.. I don't believe that is coring material, likely fairing compound that is used on the edges of the Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) which itself is a bone head process IMHO. The fix should be fairly easy, block sand and then gelcoat. The issue will be the match. From what I've seen the dealers are not very good at this, you'll need an experienced glass guy to do the job.

 

[Fishtales]

Another couple of points for all. These are excellent pics of an area that is prone to chipping over time. As stated, GW uses fairing compound in the mold to get the nice edges (rolled edge on top and underside - not the edge in question, that is horrible). The rough edge is where moisture can get in and if you store the boat in areas that freeze, the water expands and you get chips. The best way to mitigate is inside storage, shrink wrap or cover and ensure no intrusion. The other thing is that this edge isn't very robust, so it is prone to chipping if hit.
IDK it is a tricky application. Everyone wants it to look pretty, it should be durable, it needs to be lightweight. Tough set of requirements, but I still think the solution isn't optimal. Prob will be there until the end of time though as like the crappy transom joint design as the design team makes the calls and doesn't want to fix properly (again IMHO). Would be nice to see some of the manufacturing guys say NO and force the design team to correct.

 

[Hookup1]

Hardtop issues are design/manfacturing process. Same with my hatches and bow pulpit. The undersides are "up" when they are built up and finish at the "top" edge ("bottom" edge when finished. That closing edge doesn't get a lot of attention during the build. When installed its the wettest part of the hardtop. Water eventually gets in and blisters the gel coat off.



This potato chipping of the edge gel coat is all around the hardtop. Bow pulpit was pretty bad too. It does happed to the tops as well but not was bad. It is an osmosis problem. Underneath is a green/black mold. You have to sand far enough back to get to solid material.

 

[ElyseM]

Hold my beer!

 

[Sauza45]

Contact your dealer, I took delivery of a new boat and there was a nick in the non skid deck. when I brought the boat back for the
20 hours service the dealer was great, they fixed the spot and whent over the entire boat and fixed any thing they saw.
It matches perfect, cant tell anything was wrong.

 

[Mustang65fbk]

That's interesting about Grady White not being responsive to phone calls or emails as I've had the opposite experience. I emailed them a couple months back asking if they had a copy of the performance data for my vintage of GW 228 Seafarer with a single Yamaha F225 on it, and they emailed me back within the hour with a copy. Last summer I also called them up to ask a few questions about a trailer as I was looking at potentially buying a different boat at the time that didn't have a trailer included. So they emailed me a copy of trailer dimensions and recommendations later on that afternoon. Sorry to hear about the issue with your boat, hopefully the dealer takes care of it for you, although you'd think something like that wouldn't ever happen on a 6 figure plus boat. Good luck!

 

[SkunkBoat]

Thats the way they built the tops. Not a rounded over, finished edge. Just some gelcoat "painted "over the edge after they trim it coming out of the mould. My 2000 265 was the same.