On Apr 8, 10:33*pm, Phantman wrote:
On Thu, 8 Apr 2010 09:44:19 -0700 (PDT), wheewhoo wrote:
Any advice, opinions, etc welcome

What size boat? *Can you flip it upside down to work on it?
Look at thread " Peeling fiberglass surface" that was running a couple
of weeks ago.
Does your peeling look like this?http://s958.photobucket.com/albums/a...0Seas%20Skiff/

Rick

Hi Rick, it is a 20ft boat, but access is ok to the effected parts. It
does look similar to those photos, but my coating is much thicker, and
is flaking off in much smaller parts, with only very small areas of
fiberglass showing where pieces have fallen out. The surface looks
more shattered than peeling, but that is due to the thickness of the
coating I suppose.

I'm thinking to just remove the coating, or gel coat if that's what it
is, and seal it up again. A very gritty belt on a belt sander would do
it I think. If this is a gel coat, is it normal to be so thick? Could
this also be layers of paint applied over the years? When crushed the
flaked pieces snap and are brittle. I suppose you are going to ask for
a photo now

Well... yeah, a photo is worth 1000 words. But even a photo might not
be enough. If you can actually see the resin and the glass though,
then the gel coat is missing. So either it's flaking off now, or it
was knocked off previously and somebody painted over the ding and now
the paint is flaking off. Or possibly someone tried to patch it with
Bondo or something and now THAT is falling off. Lots of possibilities
I suppose. But without actually seeing it, it's tough to know. And
even a photo might not show the situation clearly. You'll have to
scrape around under there to figure out what layers are (or were)
there, and if you're looking at a new situation or an old failed patch
job. But sounds like you'll need to clean out the dings or whatever
they are and then fill and fair the bottom. Then repaint with bottom
paint if you're leaving it in salt water.

Rick