I don’t recall bumping a rock, but I’ve got this I could grind out the gelcoat and reapply. Any other options, besides just ignoring it? I do have the colored mica powder to match it up. I could just use some Gflex 655 resin too.
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Happy 1st English Child Born in Canada (Jonathan Guy, 1613)! 🍁👶🏼
Spider Cracks
- Thread starter Black_Fly
- Start date
Paddled boats for many years with those and never had a problem…but YMMV
If you really, really want to do something with it, you can cut a fillet along each leg and fill with epoxy. Wet sand and polish. It's a pain though, and if you nick the fabric it fuzzes up and looks even worse.
Speaking of worse:
Speaking of worse:
I have had 4 Swift Canoes and 3 kayaks in either Kevlar or Carbon Fusion over the years, and as much as I value the quality of their build, I must admit their composite hulls seem to be more susceptible to spider cracking from minor impacts. Most of the time, it is better to leave them alone unless the damage is severe enough to penetrate the hull, as repairs to tinted resin often look worse than the damage. Much easier to repair in a gelcoat. However, I have had some success with a very thin coat of clear gelcoat in the affected area, feathering in the edges with progressively finer grades of emery.
Would hand sanding the spider crack before applying thin gelcoat layer be advisable or not?
Follow the label directions on your product. I've had it go both ways. The one good thing to come out of nearly destroying my composite Supernova is that I have been able to gain a little bit of experience with repairs of varying severity.
Somewhere I read that extra-thin super glue sold at hobby stores could be used to wick into gelcoat cracks and seal them. I tried it once on very minor spider web cracking but it didn't seem to seep into the very small cracks. I'd be tempted to try it again though if I had spiderweb cracks without any loose gelcoat chips.
Placid Boatworks used to have a video on their website that showed gelcoat repair, first removing gelcoat along the cracks like Tryin' suggests. I tried following the video's directions on my Placid Flashfire and eventually ended up with a repair that hardly shows up, though it took a long time cautiously chipping away at the broken gelcoat and then sanding the edges - very nerve-wracking.
Placid Boatworks used to have a video on their website that showed gelcoat repair, first removing gelcoat along the cracks like Tryin' suggests. I tried following the video's directions on my Placid Flashfire and eventually ended up with a repair that hardly shows up, though it took a long time cautiously chipping away at the broken gelcoat and then sanding the edges - very nerve-wracking.
My Wenona has spider cracks in a couple places. I applied Capt. Tolley’s to them last summer. It is supposed to penetrate and seal the cracks. Did it work? Capt. Tolley’s dries clear, so the cracks are still visible. The cracks didn’t seem to be hurting anything before and don’t seem to be hurting anything now, so I’m unsure whether it worked or not. I am sure it was a lot easier than redoing the gel coat.
Collinsville canoe told me to use clear nail polish on my shearwater and they have been okay for 2 yrs now.
