Fixing the hull/gelcoat

[NoahDobie]

Figured I'd start a new thread for this. My hull isn't very great on the bottom and I also don't like the yellow... so I would like to completely redo the bottom. (Depending on the price). But for right now I think I just want to touch it up.

Some of them are pretty deep. What's the best way to go about fixing it? I know there are plenty of threads, but I haven't really seen anything with damage like this.

Also could I use some bed liner on the bottom? That way the yellow goes away and its durable.

 

[mikidymac]

Yours isn’t bad at all just buff it out and enjoy.

 

[NoahDobie]

well alright then... thanks!

 

[GGuillot]

Figured I'd start a new thread for this. My hull isn't very great on the bottom and I also don't like the yellow... so I would like to completely redo the bottom. (Depending on the price). But for right now I think I just want to touch it up.
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Some of them are pretty deep. What's the best way to go about fixing it? I know there are plenty of threads, but I haven't really seen anything with damage like this.

Also could I use some bed liner on the bottom? That way the yellow goes away and its durable.

I wouldn't do it unless you want the abuse. For less abuse you could do a partial bottom, check out my thread on the 96' GSX resto. I taped off and put a quart of gelcoat down the middle for protection, it was down to the bare fiberglass in areas. You'll need to flip the ski to really get after it, but it's a matter of prep, tape off and roll a couple coats on, then the dreaded sanding phase. Still a lot of work, but not nearly as much as doing the entire bottom. I haven't priced quart kits from FGCI coatings in a while, but around $50 plus some other materials, rollers, sand paper, etc.

The cost isn't much doing gelcoat work, it's the labor involved, depending hull size, you can easily rebuild 10 to 20 engines in the amount of time you'll spend gelcoating a ski. I had about 55-60 hours doing just the topside on the GSX. The large GTX hull top and bottom? I'd say about 150+ hours....

 

[NickCawks]

I re-gel coated my xp when I first bought it. I was not even changing colors but I would not wish that process on my worst enemy.

It was far too much work and the process took me over a month. That was my first ski and I decided that from then on I would be buying skis with clean hulls and not worry about the mechanical stuff.

Ill rebuild motors all day but never want to deal with sanding and gel coating again lol

 

[GGuillot]

It was far too much work and the process took me over a month.

That's not bad at all, for me it was 'months', but I wasn't in a hurry, sorta paced myself over the off season doing 10-12 hours or so on the weekends.

 

[NickCawks]

yeah it was about a month with my brother and myself putting around 15 hours a week in

the worst part was i didn't have enough hardening agent left for my final coat and it took the thing another couple weeks to finally dry