gel coat/fiberglass repair...comments welcome

[complac3ncy]

I have a 97 US marine fish/ski with a 97 Force 120hp Outboard. Paid $5,500 for it about a year and a half ago. NADA value in good shape was $8,200.

Last year on one of my last fishing trips of the year, I got two pretty nice scrapes that went into the gelcoat. Didn't think much of it, and actually went to BPS to get some fiberglass repair and "patched" the scrapes myself. My boat still kept afloat and I was fine with it after an hour or so of cursing to myself.

Took my boat in to have it serviced for the upcoming season and for a prop job. The guy asked me If I wanted a quote on the hull damage and I said sure. He came back and told me that he think's it would be around $4,500 as a rough estimate but could give me a definitive answer after he types it up.

This is my personal debate.....I know that if I put $4,500 into this boat that it isn't going to be worth $4,500 more, or run $4,500 better. I own the boat, there is no lein on it. The boat was worth $5,500 on the market last year, with the hull damage, certainly less now, but 25% less? 30% less? NADA lists it at approximately 7k. 

Is it fraudulent of me to file a claim to have the boat repaired, receive a check made out to me for the damage, and keep the money to....buy another boat or something? After quite a bit of thought, it just doesn't seem logical to me to put almost $5k into the boat given it's value. It still runs, floats, and it's in good shape other than that. The insurance company will not total it out because I have it insured for $7,100 (amount of my initial loan on it).

Anyone else been in a similar scenario? I had no idea the gelcoat would be that much to repair...seems really excessive, but after doing some research it looks like a major thorn in ones ass to complete the job. The damage is merely cosmetic.

I just want to do the right thing both fiscally, and legally.

Thanks! -Joe   

[Buzbait88]

Wow!!  That seems really high.  Especially if it doesn't go all through to the fiberglass.  I just recently saw another boat on the net that had a scratch down the whole side of the boat and he said to get it fixed cost him around 2000.  If it has no flakes in it and is a solid color like black or white you might be able to do it yourself pretty easily.

[complac3ncy]

It has red metallic flakes.

[Buzbait88]

If your ambitious you can try doing it yourself.  There is alot of info on the web and I know there are some videos you can buy to do it yourself.

You have an IM. 

[Basscat7]

Glass work is very expensive, especially on polyflake hulls.  Unless you have exeprience with glass and the right equipment and experience to spray gelcoat, on large repairs it is best left to a competent shop.

Post some photos of the damaged areas.

$ 4500.00 to repair a 12 year old boat is a lot to spend on that age of a boat.

What size is the boat ?

[djbird420]

You could probably rebuild the entire hull for less than 3 grand.
Shop around I think this guy might be trying to screw you.
Maybe prices are high in you area, but DAMN!

I'm getting my hull redone right now.
I got a guarantied quote of no more than $1400 for
bilge/pad rebuild with composites and new gel-coat
plus a 6' Keel-Shield.

[complac3ncy]

It's a 16'9' boat. The boat is at the shop now else i'd have a pic. I just can't see putting that kind of money into the boat unless the insurance company binds me to it. I'm fine with repairing the fiberglass and putting a coat of epoxy over it or something, even if it means a little loss when I go to sell it. I will probably end up getting a new one in the next 2-3 years. It is a pretty decent rig, and my first one at that. I wish I had more storage for rods and stuff but I can live with it. I wanted to stay well within my means on my first boat because of things like this that you just can't learn without owning one.

[iClass]

As far as fraudulent...I don't know.  The insurance is provided for you should you damage your boat.  If they pay your claim, it is to restore your boat to "like condition" Prior to the incident.  If they cut you the check and you decide to live with the cosmetic damage and use that money as a dn pmt on another boat, it would be strictly up to you.  I don't believe that you would be prosecuted for fraud(although I am not an atty).  You wouldn't be able to file a claim for any additional hull damage after that though because you did not have this problem corrected.

I would get some other quotes, submit all three to the insurance agency.  See what they want to do.  Then decide what you want to do.  Myself, I wouldn't invest more money into it now (not that amount anyway).  I would sell/part it out. Use the insurance money and other moneys to buy a different vessel. 

What is a boat anyway, but a hole in the water where you throw money...

[complac3ncy]

Well to make a long story short, the insurance company offered me a settlement on the boat. Since the estimate sent in from the marine center was going to cost more than the average retail price of the hull  , they cut me a check for the price of the hull instead.
The insurance company (St. Farm) said they would pay for the full amount of the repair as long as I was going to have it done. I said that I did not feel like it was worth it putting that kind of money into the boat, and took the "settlement".

So I have some money now to do a personal repair. The gouge on the boat is about the size of a quarter, maybe a tad bigger, and it does penetrate the gel/metal flake/fiberglass. I haven't measured how deep the damage is, but i'd say less than 1/4 of an inch.

What I want to do is make this area at least waterproof. Color is not a big concern although i'd like to at least make the "patch" clear colored. I have marine epoxy but that is about it. Looking for suggestions on how to do this so the fiberglass is waterproof so it won't absorb any water. The damage is above the water line.

Any tips would be great, thanks!

[Basscat7]

Well to make a long story short, the insurance company offered me a settlement on the boat. Since the estimate sent in from the marine center was going to cost more than the average retail price of the hull  , they cut me a check for the price of the hull instead.
The insurance company (St. Farm) said they would pay for the full amount of the repair as long as I was going to have it done. I said that I did not feel like it was worth it putting that kind of money into the boat, and took the "settlement".

So I have some money now to do a personal repair. The gouge on the boat is about the size of a quarter, maybe a tad bigger, and it does penetrate the gel/metal flake/fiberglass. I haven't measured how deep the damage is, but i'd say less than 1/4 of an inch.

What I want to do is make this area at least waterproof. Color is not a big concern although i'd like to at least make the "patch" clear colored. I have marine epoxy but that is about it. Looking for suggestions on how to do this so the fiberglass is waterproof so it won't absorb any water. The damage is above the water line.

Any tips would be great, thanks!

Buy some clear finishing resin, a coloring tint that closely matches the boat and patch it.
You will never get an exact match doing it your self, but you can get close.

or
just buy the pre colored finishing gel coat .

Cheapest way would be to just fill it with Marine - Tex,  then  buy some red flaked gel coat and put a skin coat of the red gel on over the marine - Tex.  Marine tex comes in white and gray, can be tinted with everfast coloring tints also.

Gel coat tints :
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=2078&familyName=Epoxy+%2F+Gelcoat+Coloring+Agents

Finishing resin :
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=2081&familyName=Polyester+Finishing+Resin

Colored  finishing gelcoats :

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=1522&familyName=Colored+Air+Dry+Gelcoats

Marine - Tex :

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=2088&familyName=Marine-Tex+Epoxy

[complac3ncy]

Would I be better off applying color tinted marine tex, then a gel coat, then the finishing resin

or

Evercoat marine polyester gel paste (tinted) and then the finishing resin?

Seems like there are alot of options...sure are alot of products.

[complac3ncy]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions on this repair  . I am just about wrapping it up and it looks pretty good if I might add.

Just for future reference for anyone that has a similar issue, here is what I was working with and how I fixed it. Wish I took pictures of before and after but oh well.

Had a gouge in the corner of my hull, right near the bilge. It was slightly bigger than a quarter, and just broke through the gel and metal flake into the fiberglass, little less than 1/4 inch deep.

After sanding the area thoroughly, I used Marine Tex and added evercoat tint to match the color of my boat. Now this didn't really match the color at all, and after adding the red to the white marine-tex, I was left with a pretty pink.....didn't matter how much I added it stayed pink. The temps outside were around 60, slightly cooler in my garage but I propped up a hair dryer on a chair next to the repair and kept it on it for a few hours. The intent here was to fill in what I could of the gouge, and to seal the exposed chipped fiberglass.

The next day, I sanded the area once again untill it was smooth. I used evercoat clear gel repair paste and mixed it with the metallic red flakes that I bought at a local craft shop. The flakes matched my boat flake finish almost exactly. After going over the gouge and making it contour exactly to the boat, I basically used the hair dryer to blow the metal flakes onto the "wet" clear paste with the flakes added in. Got the entire spot covered up very well with the paste and metal flakes. I took a peice of seran wrap and placed it over the repair. Then took a peice of newspaper and taped it over the repair. Then I took one of the putty applicators and went over the entire repair area to smooth it out and make it contour correctly.

The next day I removed the seran wrap and mixed polyester resin. I went over the entire repair with the resin as well as a few other areas on my boat that I needed.

If you didn't know that the area was damaged to begin with you'd probably not even realize it was there....definately works for me.

My Price: $70 with shipping.

Local Marine Center price: $4,550

Definately recommend the Jameston Distributors    ...very fast shipping and they even sent me an email asking if everything was what I needed, etc.

[Basscat7]

Nice.
Glad it worked out for your situation. Definately the way to go on older boats that you don't want to dump a lot of cash into the repair.
Jamestown is a good company to deal with, carry everything for any type of glass repairs.

Hobby/craft stores are a great source for matching polyflakes for just about any brand boat.

Keep it waxed now.