Upper deck repaint and GelCoat????

[tiger2466]

Hello there,

Talk about your newbees. Well that's me. I just put a down payment on a 1986 KONA 20. It will be fine for this season, BUT, over the winter I will need to repaint the top section. The Gel Coat is pretty cracked. Although not all that deep, cracked none the less. It is a real rich dark blue. I want to lighten the color, no burning of the flesh, and was wondering how far down I will need to sand to reach the bottom of the Gel, or do I even need to? Can I just get under the cracks and then just prime and paint? I can do the hard part but will take it to a shop to have the spray done. Any help you guys who have been there done that can provide will assuredly make life a little easier.

The hull just needs a good cleaning and polishing.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Upper deck repaint and GelCoat????

Depending on the cause, cracks can be difficult to repair. If there's something wrong with the gel coat itself, then the affected areas need to be sanded completely off and this can be a very large area in some cases. If the cracks area from a one time impact then you still need to sand them all off, but you'll know its only a small area and the rest of the boat should be fine. They can also be from a poor design or lack of support in that part of the boat. In this situation you need to fix the cause and then repair the cracks or they may be back before the boat hits the water.

 

[tiger2466]

Re: Upper deck repaint and GelCoat????

For the most part it don't look like any sort of impact cracking. It appears to be nothing more than sun weathered. More like surface cracking in the clear coat. I looked the boat over pretty good. It looks like it never hit anything but the water. Also, it is a 1986 KONA VIP. Would anyone know where I could find an owners manual. The outboard is not a problem, it has an Evinrude 3.6 XP V8. I found a manual for that already.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Upper deck repaint and GelCoat????

Boats don't really have owners manuals, so you won't find much of anything on the boat.


For a good and long lasting paint job you'll need to remove all of the cracked gel coat, if you don't the cracks will migrate through the new paint.