Tartilla

'86 Cobalt Condurre 300

Front deck has seen some sun. Needs a cut and polish.
​​​
Just washed and cleaned with green scrubbies so far to remove some of the oxidation.

There are a few 1" cracks in the gelcoat dispersed on the front deck.

What is my best solution for repair?

Hull is amazing and still shines. Just the deck got the good news from the sun.

Thanks, Art.

bajaman

Well, you have a couple of options including doing nothing. To correctly fix the cracks, you need to rout them out with a 45 degree carbide bit and go pretty deep, then color-match the gelcoat using the kit from West Marine or equivalent. I've done it successfully a few times but when you look at the 'damage' you've done to fix it, it's easy to freak out a bit. The hardest part is the color matching...white is no longer white after years of exposure to the elements.

Tartilla

Check.
​​​Makes sense to V it out.

It isn't somethjng that stands out and bothers me like obvious hull gel issues.

My plan is to run it this season. Focus on that.

​​Clean the deck, and maybe do a minor wet sand or Aqua Buff 1000. Just enough to clean and then put some wax on it.

Then next winter do a major refresh on the deck. Get down to a stable white tone, and match to that.

I had some gel bubbling happening a bit in the cockpit from the sun. Must have had some moisture in it? Area covered mostly by the seats.

bajaman

I had a 1992 208 Baja that I bought new in November of 1991, kept it for 28 years. Over that time it developed a few cracks like you show...and like you, it bothered the crap out of me so I fixed a few of them, then I decided to not let it bother me anymore. My wife was like, "Your the only one that sees them anyway!", lol!

Blackrain1

I remember awhile back I saw a product designed to fill in these cracks that you could colour match to your boat. It was like a thin CA type glue that would penetrate the damaged area and fill it in. If I can find the information I will post it here for you.

Tartilla

That makes a lot of sense... a thicker pigmented cyanacrolate glue that penetrates the crack and seals...preventing further cracking vs a drill stop method.

Wetsandable for any high spots.

Great catch, thank you.

tommymonza

Fiberglass Coating in St Pete Fl can color match gel coat if you can send them a sizable sample to match. It’s like $125 for a quart but it should be dead on.