Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
My son spilled a Powerade Mountain Blast from Sonic Drive-In all over the inside of the cockpit last Sunday. The wind was howling so I didn't have a chance to try and clean it up until we got back in.
I scrubbed it with clean water but was it would not come up and I now have a blue stain in the fiberglass/gelcoat.
Does anyone have a suggestion on how to get this stain out?
Also, I've noticed that the gelcoat on my boat seems to chip very easily. It doesn't seem to take much of a bump to get a small piece to chip off. I've never seen gelcoat this brittle/chippy. :)
I'm also getting hairline cracks in the gelcoat which I know are stress cracks but since I bought the boat in October I've noticed several new ones appear. And no, I didn't miss them when I bought the boat because I was very thorough looking for this type of issue when I inspected the boat. They are also in areas that are very visible and would have been noticable without much effort.
I've owned boats most of my life but haven't seen these type of issues before. Anyone have any ideas on why these things are happening?
Gary, [url="http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/producte/10001/-1/10001/32267?ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=32267"]FSR [/url]will probably take up the stain. As far as stress cracks go, I'll let other experts weigh in, I have little fiberglass repair experience. As far as FSR goes, I've had really good luck with it. There was a long thread about this a while back, and I seem to remember that it's basically oxalic acid, so there may be a way to get it cheaper than WM.
For organic stains, I use toilet bowl cleaner (hydrochloric acid). This stuff will also make a scum line disappear before your very eyes. As with any acid, keep it away from skin/metals and rinse thoroughly.
You gelcoat is getting porous and that is why it stains. Use a wax over all of your gelcoat to help seal it from staining. Starbrite has an excellent non-skid cleaner/wax. Use regular wax on the other areas.
I had a 1986 C22 and it would stain easily. In fact the FSR would stain it if I left it on too long. You could also rub the deck and see a chalky look on your hand. The gelcoat had become worn and porous. There are several solutions, the easiset of which is to use wax to seal the deck. I also used Poli-Glo on the hull and it was a terrific tool. (Some love it and some hate it, I love it)
It is harder to deal with on the non-skid because you can't wet sand or polish to a new smooth gelcoat. That is why an easy to apply wax makes sense to me there.
When the gelcoat is just gone then people paint their boats and get very good results. I would use the wax route first.
maybe FSR like another suggested may work on the stain, otherwise, perhaps buy more of that Mountain Blast and ensure you cover the whole cockpit for a consistent blue cockpit area.
Where exactly are the stress cracks emerging ? Is it possibly because of some other prolelm such as water somehow getting in underneath and making for a soft area that is showing gel coat cracks as first symptom of a bigger issue ? I know that when i had a small chip in a speck of the gel coat in the cockpit area, I used a bit of epoxy there which was just about the same grey color.
I got some leaf stains out of the cockpit once with a paste made from OXY clean. Don't know if it works on slushies though. At least he didn't spill dark beer
We had some cracks in the gelcoat on Passage--they're commonly called "spider cracks" and were distinctly not "stress cracks." A stress crack is in the underlying laminate, caused by flexing of the hull or misfits between molded sections of the boat, and are real problems. A spider crack is generally caused by shrinkage of the gelcoat as it ages in the sun, and most often appears in areas where the gelcoat is thicker, such as the curves between seats and bulkheads or coamings. They can be repaired with the gelcoat patch you can buy in a tube--squeeze some into the crack, let set, sand down with super-fine sandpaper, and wax or polish.
My main recommendation, however, is not to call them "stress cracks" unless they really are. They shouldn't be, and probably aren't.
Thank you everyone for your input on these issues! I really do appreciate it.
I'll start out with the Oxy-Clean because we already have some. I'll then move up to the FSR. Luckily I have a WM right at the front of my marina. I'll let everyone know the results this weekend.
Dave - Based on your terminology I would say my cracks are "spider cracks". They are very fine and appear to be very shallow. I would have to say they are just in the gelcoat. I repaired a few of them a couple of weeks ago with some gelcoat in a tube and they haven't spread any further. They are in the areas you mentioned.
The ones that have me perplexed the most are on the corners of the cabin top where it wraps around from the sides into the cockpit. There's one on each side and as I mentioned they just showed up about 3 or 4 weeks ago. Each one is about 3 - 4 inches long and are right on the radius.
Is there anyway to stop these spider cracks from continuing to develop? Would the Poli-Glo block the UV rays from further degrading the gelcoat?
I've always loved the blue color of swimming pools. Maybe I could get some swimming pool paint and just paint the cockpit. It would be a close match to the Mountain Blast and would protect the gelcoat from the UV rays.
Are you at Watergate? Sounds like it, if WM is that close. I'm just down the road in South Shore Harbour. We'll have to get together for a 'Blast' sometime. . . or beer, if you prefer--I know I would!
I should be in town a couple of nights a week for the rest of the month. Drop me an email and maybe we can meet after work or something.
For repairing your spider cracks if they are deep you need to use a dremel tool with the point tool and open up the cracks before applying gelcoat. Otherwise the gelcoat will not penetrate the cracks trapping air. It's much easier than one might think. Once wet sanded you will not see where the repair was performed.
I'd love to meet up with you but unfortunately I live in Missouri City and weeknights would not be possible. If you're in town on the weekend we could meet up and go for sail(and a beer or two)!
My first big boat experience was on Canyon Lake. I used to sail up there every other weekend of so in the early to mid 70's. Are you out of LCYC?
Shoot me an email if your going to be in town on the weekend sometime.
I'm there a night or two during the week but occasionally for the weekend. Maybe we'll meet up! Lord knows I spend lots of time in WM.
Canyon was a GREAT place in the 70's. Spent a lot of time there then, growing up in San Marcos. It's gotten too crowded of late, especially on summer weekends.
Well, I went down to the boat yesterday and all of the stains were gone! I either got lucky or someone cleaned my boat for me! Maybe the gelcoat is so porous it went all the way through. :):):)
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.