Hello Everyone,
I have been working on a Kawasaki ski and am having some issues fixing some chips / gouges in the gel coat. They have several places on the lower half off the hull where gel coat has been chipped etc. I have been able to fix these easily using typical gel coat patch techniques.
They also have several chips on the top side which I thought I could fix in the same manor. What I found is that the top layer of gel coat is extremly thin. Its almost like when they were building the top side in the mold they sprayed a very thin layer of white gel then followed it up with a really dark beige gelcoat. Not sure if it was cheaper to do this but it makes fixing a pain since you have very little of the actual white to work with.
How do you all recommend to fix? I did the typical method of grinding the gouge out slightly then applied the gel paste. Next I attempted to sand smooth to prepare to buff. the problem is that the white is so thin you sand through it prior to ever getting to the buffing point... this is much different than any other boat I have ever done gel coat work on. Typically there is enough of the gel coat to work with so you do not run into this problem.
Any thoughts.. My only couple ideas is to match the white with paint and spray over the area... Or spray Gel. then sand and buff.
To me this is a pretty crappy way for the MFG to build.. it makes repair a complete pain. Not to mention typical dock rash that you would just sand out on ski with thick gelcoat is impossible with the methods used on this ski.
I have been working on a Kawasaki ski and am having some issues fixing some chips / gouges in the gel coat. They have several places on the lower half off the hull where gel coat has been chipped etc. I have been able to fix these easily using typical gel coat patch techniques.
They also have several chips on the top side which I thought I could fix in the same manor. What I found is that the top layer of gel coat is extremly thin. Its almost like when they were building the top side in the mold they sprayed a very thin layer of white gel then followed it up with a really dark beige gelcoat. Not sure if it was cheaper to do this but it makes fixing a pain since you have very little of the actual white to work with.
How do you all recommend to fix? I did the typical method of grinding the gouge out slightly then applied the gel paste. Next I attempted to sand smooth to prepare to buff. the problem is that the white is so thin you sand through it prior to ever getting to the buffing point... this is much different than any other boat I have ever done gel coat work on. Typically there is enough of the gel coat to work with so you do not run into this problem.
Any thoughts.. My only couple ideas is to match the white with paint and spray over the area... Or spray Gel. then sand and buff.
To me this is a pretty crappy way for the MFG to build.. it makes repair a complete pain. Not to mention typical dock rash that you would just sand out on ski with thick gelcoat is impossible with the methods used on this ski.
