Gday to all,due to what you could say being a smart ass,im now paying the price after my mono went for a trip up the bank,ended up with prety much the whole of one side with heaps of fine long cracks through out the gelcoat ,nothing through to glass,my question is do i have to rub it all back and re gel coat or is there some other ways to get around this ,many thanks to all that return coments and ideas,peter.

Well Petdos,

In My opinion, I would "block" out the scratches, depending on the severity, would depend on the grit of sandpaper to use. Start "wetsanding" with 1000grt and work up to 1500grt, if you find that your sanding and sanding when you start, lower your grit to 800grt or 500grt. Periodically run your fingers across the damages, if you feel yout getting the scratches out start switching up to a higher grit. This way when your finished the area will be ready to "buff out" I use a product called 3m perfect it #2 and a yellow foam buffing wheel with a profressional grade buffer, you can also do it with a considerable amount of elbow grease!

The cracks!, it's probally safe to assume, that the cracks are right thru to the fiberglass, those will have to be sanded down to the glass. Not a big deal, but now you have to prime and paint. This part would be up to you, obviously you need to use paint that won't melt from gasoline, example: paint outof a spray can will not hold up. Then theres the question of color matching? all whites are not white if ya get what I'm saying.

If You want to tackle it, let me know, I can shed some light on the subject if you'd like.

Gary C.

I agree about the cracks. When I first started out I would buy old damaged hulls and fix them up to save money. To stop/fix spider cracks in gelcoat I had good luck by grinding them out with a Dremel, actually going down to the glass and actually tapering it wider towards the outside. I then would clean it out very well with acetone and fill it in with matching resin. Finished it up with sanding/priming/painting.