Gel coat repair question

[talltigeguy]

About 2 years ago, my boat sustained a small ding in the port rear corner of the boat. The wife took the boat out without me and came back with the ding, not knowing how it happened.

I found a gel coat repair kit from one of our threads here and purchased the 'TIge White' 1996-2006, and was eager to finally get her repaired.

It is not a large ding, about the size of your pinkie fingernail, but felt it would make the boat look better cared for if it were repaired. I am likely looking for a new boat next summer.

Here was the problem and the kit that I bought.

[talltigeguy]

Mixing the gel coat up was easy enough.

[talltigeguy]

I applied the gel coat and then let it dry. Sorry for the poor pic.

It was then time to sand, so I taped off the edges, so that I would only sand the smallest area possible.

[talltigeguy]

and the pic:

[talltigeguy]

Using wet sand paper, I went from 200 to 800 grit. That made a nice smooth surface.

[talltigeguy]

Then I waxed it with my 3M stuff.

Here is the final result.

[talltigeguy]

I need help with a few things.

Notice that first off the ding is pretty obviously visible. The camera did a very nice job of showing that, it probably is not actually that noticeable. You can still see the area around the ding that was sanded as well. I do not have any polish.

What Polish should I get that will help to smooth out the area that is sanded? I think that is what I need (the instructions said to use a polish after). Is there anything that can be done to match that up better...or what did I do wrong? You can see also that I did have a tiny air bubble in the gel coat that I applied and that shows as the little dark spot. That is just poor workmanship on my part.

I want the boat to look good, and it probably looks good enough for government work. Most people will never notice it.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Here is what the rest of the boat looks like with the sun coming into the garage:

[da.bell]

I would continue with using a smaller grit and then even smaller. Then apply a lot of caranuba wax and continue the "wax on wax off" method.

Here is another thread that Andrew commented on the gel coat. Not sure you saw it but here it is: http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=993

[spharis]

No heavier than those sand marks are, you can get it back smooth with some 3M Marine Compound. Get the "heavy" and "light" versions and polish it back. It is really easy to work. You probably will not even need to use the light. Over time the color should fade to match.

You need to let me add this as a tutorial on www.wakeboatworld.com I think it would show alot of boaters out there that this kind of repair can be done at home in the driveway.

-Steve

[Big Wave]

I have found that chrome polish does a good job after the 800 grit wet sand. The key to rubbing compound or chrome polish is doing spending the time on it.
To get a true color match I think you need to use gel coat instead of the paste. This site has the factory colorshttp://www.spectrumcolor.com/catalog.htm
I have used there products on other boats and the match has been perfect.

[David Baker]

When I do a repair I use 1000 and then 1500 grit before poishing. I then use 3M rubbing compound, then Finess It finishing compound and then Imperial Hand glaze. Mequiars has a similar line of polishing products. I picked up a cheap buffer at Harbor Freight to do the hard part. The Sprectrum gel coat paste patch repair kit matched so good I had a hard time finding it. Did you use the Crystal White?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92623

[talltigeguy]

I would continue with using a smaller grit and then even smaller. Then apply a lot of caranuba wax and continue the "wax on wax off" method.

Here is another thread that Andrew commented on the gel coat. Not sure you saw it but here it is: http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=993

I used down to 800 grit, not even sure that I saw smaller grit available. The instructions said to go to 500 and call it good, so I thought 800 was overkill, maybe will give that a try.

No heavier than those sand marks are, you can get it back smooth with some 3M Marine Compound. Get the "heavy" and "light" versions and polish it back. It is really easy to work. You probably will not even need to use the light. Over time the color should fade to match.

You need to let me add this as a tutorial on www.wakeboatworld.com I think it would show alot of boaters out there that this kind of repair can be done at home in the driveway.

-Steve

I intended when I started for this to be a little tutorial, but am a little dissatisfied with the results. I used the 3M Cleaning and wax combination on it, and obviously, that is not quite what will get it right.

I have found that chrome polish does a good job after the 800 grit wet sand. The key to rubbing compound or chrome polish is doing spending the time on it.
To get a true color match I think you need to use gel coat instead of the paste. This site has the factory colorshttp://www.spectrumcolor.com/catalog.htm
I have used there products on other boats and the match has been perfect.

I got the stuff from Spectrumcolor.com, and the label on the lid says 'Tige white 94-06' and is labeled as crystal white on the website.

When I do a repair I use 1000 and then 1500 grit before poishing. I then use 3M rubbing compound, then Finess It finishing compound and then Imperial Hand glaze. Mequiars has a similar line of polishing products. I picked up a cheap buffer at Harbor Freight to do the hard part. The Sprectrum gel coat paste patch repair kit matched so good I had a hard time finding it. Did you use the Crystal White?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92623

It seems that I need a better finishing glaze of some sort. I will also see if I can find some smaller grit wet sandpaper.

Thanks for your thoughts. I will try some combination of the above and then post more pics and hopefully it will be as good as I had hoped for.

[TeamAllen]

I found some 1500 and 2000 grit wet sand paper at Walmart. It was in a glass case by the automotive spray touch up paint. We used it for the Pinewood Derby axle polishing. I would think a smaller hardware store would have it also.

[chpthril]

Good write-up, I think it looks pretty good so far

Check the yellow pages for an auto body supply store, where the pro's buy from, they will have everything you need to finish it up, including tips.

I would get 2 or 3 grits from 1000 to 2000 and wet-sand from here out.

[tigeblue]

When I do a repair I use 1000 and then 1500 grit before poishing. I then use 3M rubbing compound, then Finess It finishing compound and then Imperial Hand glaze. Mequiars has a similar line of polishing products. I picked up a cheap buffer at Harbor Freight to do the hard part. The Sprectrum gel coat paste patch repair kit matched so good I had a hard time finding it. Did you use the Crystal White?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92623

This is correct. I have used this method and I cannot even tell where my ding was. Try this way.