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How do I fix A dirty big star crack.
Rick Hayes here. Since Alex mentioned my e-mail to him, I thought I'd post
it for the benefit of others. Several repair strategies are possible - which I'd use would depend on two things - the actual nature/shape of the crack itself, and secondly how important the cosmetic finish is to you. If the crack simply radiates in widely separated lines, you have the option of routing out the cracks - maybe using a Dremel tool (very carefully) with a fine bit or stone - then filling the resulting trough with either a thickened epoxy paste (silica filler) or a two part epoxy putty. Allow to cure, then sand off to fair the repair. Paint/gelcoat if appearance is important. If the damage is too extensive for routing out - lots of concentric circles of cracks, for example - you can sand out the gelcoat from the entire area, then rebuild it using thickened epoxy fillers and perhaps a top layer of gelcoat. I don't bother with gelcoat - find that thickened epoxy fillers work just as well. Of course, it leaves an off-colour patch, and it can be difficult to get it faired in really well. But then, I tend to worry a lot more about 'solid' than I do about 'pretty'. A third option, although a rather barbaric one, is to simply whack a fibreglass cloth/epoxy patch over the area - then fair in the edges and the weave of the cloth as well as you can with thickened epoxy, and sand to fair. Isn't pretty, but it'd at least keep water out of the laminate. Finally, if the boat is stored outdoors, and freeze/thaw is a concern in the short term - I'd be inclined to temporarily cover over the cracks with TuxckTape until I got a chance to do the repair - the tape will leave a sticky residue, but hey, better a minor cleaning job than laminate problems. Hope this helps. Regards, Rick -- "You Shouldn't Have Joined If You Can't Take A Joke" Royal Navy Axiom replace vk1nf with rhayes to reply --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.592 / Virus Database: 375 - Release Date: 2/18/04 |
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