gelcoat q...
 

Sorry, I'm not a boat owner, so I have a dumb boat question.

Helped out a friend today get his 23 foot Boston Whaler ready for the water.

He applied a mild abrasive cleaner to the gelcoat inside the boat on the hull (used a buffing device), after which we put a few coats of wax to the treated areas.

How thick is the gelcoat on these boats, and, assuming you do this at the start of every season, how long before you wear through the gelcoat and get down to the fiberglass?

:confused:

the older the boat the more there is,,I've seen it an 1/8 of an inch thick on the old gal's, but the newer boat's you'd be lucky to see a 1/16 these day's..they want to tout a lighter boat for better gas milage...plus the fact the bums are just plain cheap to put more on.

CS is right, when I've used a hole saw and seen the cross section of the piece that somes out, its maybe 1/32".....prolly less....

...bummer.

WW,
A lot depends on the boat. I've been rubbing on mine for 15 years now and there is no sign of wearing through. The rubbing compound really doesn't take very much off anyway.

You don't want to use a heavy or even medium grit year after year, once in a while is ok but a good wax will clean it up every spring like new. My 74' SEACRAFT shines like a mirror and I only used a medium grit about four years agoother than that I use a product by 3M and its an awesome combo wax/restorer.

The gelcoat thickness is usually measured in "mils". Too thick it will crack, too thin it will have porosity/see through. Typically, I believe gelcoat manufacturers recommend 15-20 mils. Also, they quite often will spray a white gel coat(15-20mils) and then back it up with another dark colored gelcoat (10mils).
Typically you would wash the hull then clean/wax in some combination.
It's can be applied with a buffer running slow and keep it moving.
Stay away from automotive compounds and use "light" duty compounds, but only when necessary.
Meguiars make a good cleaner/wax (Boat/US or BoaterWorld)the is not very abrasive which is good to use year to year.

Anybody interested in fiberglass repair or gel coating check out

www.fiberglass-repair.com

Look on the sidebar and he has a few slides!!!!

I have both his disk and they have helped me as a learning tool!!!!