Mad Cow

I need to repair a used Warehouse Hobbies Gator which has several small cracks in the gelcote, and one poorly patched collision crack. If you dont know, is there any way to tell by examining it? Thanks in advance.

Macleod

The resin used would be Polyester or known as G.P Resin (General Purpose). If the hull has Gelcoat then G.P resin is the most common laminating resin, and the cheapest.

With Epoxy you have to use a special epoxy gelcoat. Very expensive.

When I made hulls for boats I would do the common : Gelcoat with G.P Resin and glass layup with add reinforcement (Carbon or Kevlar).

With the Epoxy I would paint down a skin of vinyl ester (Derakane) resin as a gelcoat, then laminate with epoxy using Kevlar, Carbon and woven glass cloth. Plus vacumm bag with whole thing.... Doing this will cost you a kidney, an arm and a leg.....

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

Get with Tony at WHH, he can be a lot of help with your problem.
In the last few issues of RCBM, he has had articles in there on just the problems that you have. If some of the cracks are from stress, this can be normal but WHH lays up their hulls pretty heavily because of the powerplant and the beating that owners put in their boats. If it's only in the Gelcoat and not the 'glas, it's just cosmetic damage.