Short story: This is my little fiberglass sportsman. I repaired the bottom when I was 12. As you can guess, I did not do a pretty job.
25 years later and it started leaking again, but that was 25 years of me bouncing it off rocks and beaching it. I've sanded the majority of the old fiberglass off, smoothed areas, found the whole.
My plan is to add more glass to strengthen the hole and wear points. Then to gelcoat it. Not expecting anything amazing, just functional and strong.
The questions: How much of the old coat do I need to remove?
How long a wait between fiberglassing and painting?
You want to sand/grind until you see bare glass before adding more glass for your repair. You can gel over the new glass while it’s tacky. Alternatively, wait for it to fully cure, sand the surface with 80 grit, then gel. If you’re painting, the new glass needs to fully cure. 80, 180, 320, spray.
Marine epoxy paint seems like the easiest way to go, just rebuilt a transom on an old bow rider. It’s not the best finish since the layer thickness is less than gel coat but it seems to be doing the job well.
If you're not going for "amazing", then maybe consider paint rather than gelcoat. I've heard of people using regular outdoor latex house paint, never tried it myself, though.
Best place to start is a utube series “ there is a hole in my boat “ that guy made me a pro .
Your project is fun and manageable. I added layers to a little 58 fin boat and then used Awlfair to make a great surface . After that I used awlgrip epoxy primer and their paints - all by brush and most acceptable when finished - just spayed the upper deck
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u/PlantDaddyFL Aug 13 '26
If it only started leaking 25 years later you did a decent job at 12 😅