I completed the gelcoat repair on the keel of my newly acquired Current Designs Solstice GT. As some may recall I dropped the boat in -30°C while loading it when I picked it up from the previous owner, and the gelcoat did not love the blow… I built up a set of stands last week and finally got after the repair yesterday and completed it today!! Was very happy with the result. Started by cleaning up the chipped and cracked areas around the main damage with rotary Dremel and then Acetone and taped it off preparing for gel coat application.
The first coat of gelcoat dabbed on with a wooden popsicle stick and then used parchment paper to help form it. First coat had a fairly large void at the high point of the keel which was not surprising, considering the parchment form. I removed any sharp edges around the edges of the void prior to doing the final coat and then applying parchment paper again to form it.
After the second coat I removed the parchment and it was ready for rough sanding/shaping with 200grit…
Worked my way through 400, 600 and finally wet sanded with 1500 and 2000 followed with some polishing compound.
There are a few imperfections but considering the condition of the rest of the hull I didn’t get to worked up about it and called it a success.
The first coat of gelcoat dabbed on with a wooden popsicle stick and then used parchment paper to help form it. First coat had a fairly large void at the high point of the keel which was not surprising, considering the parchment form. I removed any sharp edges around the edges of the void prior to doing the final coat and then applying parchment paper again to form it.
After the second coat I removed the parchment and it was ready for rough sanding/shaping with 200grit…
Worked my way through 400, 600 and finally wet sanded with 1500 and 2000 followed with some polishing compound.
There are a few imperfections but considering the condition of the rest of the hull I didn’t get to worked up about it and called it a success.
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