It is always in the prep. 98% prep, 1% hose time, and 1% buff time. If there is a "How-to video on gelcoat repair out there. This is definitely one of the VERY BEST!!! Justin rocked it, and his teaching was extremely clear and to the point, especially "rolling the tape edge for a soft line for buffing. Excellent video!! Thank you.

I'm impressed with Justin's attention to detail and his search for perfection. Congratulations!

Agree with earlier comment, so nice to see a young fellow demonstrating so much patience and attention to detail. Admirable qualities Justin! Great video...

Man so much work! Respect to everybody who does good work in the industry.

When I watch these videos and read the comments, the majority of them are negative in one way or another. It's great to see a young man of his age to be passionate about his work and go the extra mile to make sure it looks perfect. Keep up the good work and if I didn't live three states away, I would have you fix all the scratches and dings in my boat! BTW, I do agree that you need a mask or respirator and safety glasses. MEK is some rough stuff.

Awesome video! So much information I had to save to watch a couple more times. I can only imagine the skills 2 years later🤯🤯

This is the best video I've found yet explaining spider cracks and repair. I'm currently doing my Moomba but it's on the actual hull. I'm not finding much in videos for doing ski boat hulls specifically, but thanks so far.

Excellent job. Takes pride in his work. Well done

You, young man, are an artist with this fiberglass repair. It was very educational and really showed how to approach such a repair.

By far the best video on you tube showing the right steps to correctly repair small dings in gel coat, great job!

Tremendous skills, I'm very envious!

Good presentation and dialogue. Came away with a lot of useful tips. Thanks

Great video, thanks for posting. Justin, your attention to detail is first rate and a credit to your workmanship. The finish looked perfect.

Nice professional work!

Great video and great patch job!!!

Best video clear and very clear explanation with patience step by step 👌 thank you for sharing

Kudos young man. mad skilz.. much respect from an OG

Beautiful work! I repair a lot of fiberglass and epoxy surfboards! It is def an art. Well done 😎🤙

That was a fantastic video, thanks for putting together such a detailed explanation of the required steps. Very helpful.

Nicely done!

this guy has great work ethic.

Really useful info. Many thanks!!!

Bloody nice work mate

Dang. When can you come over to my house and buff out my boat? Wow, your attention to detail is impressive.

Great video. I have some MC fiberglass parts to repair and this was very helpful.

Thanks for all the great tips and technics

Very awesome professional work.

Thank you for these videos..It helps others trying to learn .the right way! .

No nonsense commentary. Perfect and focused on the job at hand. A person who knows his craft. Lots of other vids about cracks but Justin gets to the heart of the matter, routing to the glass or the crack returns!! Well done! I am doing the same for my airplane tips that have cracks but no structural damage. But - - how do you find all the hairlines? Is there a dye method? Thanks

Great vid. Thanks!

Like a dentist for boats. I appreciate the detail and time it takes to make these kind of repairs. Thank you for sharing your techniques.

Nice job on the light repair.

Great video, bro !

felt like I was at the dentist for a minute there, gotta love air tools!. Nice work.

Great info thanks mate. Looking at the boat you're working on makes my job on a small tender look easy and I thought I had a ton of spider cracks to fill

Wow! Much more involved than I thought. Know anyone in Broward that does similar quality work??

my man crushed it, top quality

Impressive attention to detail. I would wear a respiratory though. I meet so many patients who sanded things for a living. We don't know what that stuff is going to do to your lungs in 20 years.

Outstanding!👍👍👍

Impressive, thanks for sharing..

Quite the process but great job young man!

Good vidéo, nice job. Thank you

Great job thanks

did a very good job enjoying the non-fiberglass people how to do it one more tip I would add to you is that the end of every crack drill a very fine hole that way you'll stop the fiberglass from continuing its crack

Perfect 👌

No cutting corners here. Fine job!

Justin does a nice job explaining & pointing out the small details I’m in the process of my1st restoration project I’ve been repairing small gel cracks etc. & was looking for a touch up spray gun like he used what make , model & where to purchase , the nozl. size can it spray gel. Thank you & keep videos coming great job

TOP CLASS GLASS WORK

Very good

Excellent video.....well done sir.

i would say an excellent job . hat off to you .

Brilliant 👍

So, a few tip to add from someone who does this a frighteningly large amount of the time. If you've got a large crack or scratch that penetrates to the chop layer, then you should not rebuild the entire thing with the Gel Coat. As stated, the shrink is actually much higher on it, and leftover internal stresses from a large blob will cause issues. Use Bondo and some chopped fiberglass to rebuild the structure. The bondo is filler, while the fiberglass fragments are where your strength comes from. Aim for about a 10-12% per weight ratio of Bondo to fiberglass. Once hardened sand and make sure the surface is rough but not jagged (100-200 grit sandpaper). Whenever you mix gel you should pay attention to a lot of things. You're looking for 80 degrees ambient minimum (usually 90 is target), with about 20-40% humidity. This is hugely important for not retarding the cure time. 10 degrees isn't a lot, but it can double cure times. You're aiming for about 1.5% catalyst (MEKP) to 98.5% gel by weight. You can eyeball it, but it's a potential failure mode. This mix will give you a pliable but thick coverage for deep damages. If you're using a wren gun, or other air tool, aim for 1.5% catalyst, 70% gel, 28.5% acetone mix. The acetone will retard the cure time, but it will allow the material to flow through most gun tips without too much issue. Flush the tip with pure acetone afterwards, or the gel can gum up in the tip. Once you apply the gel with either the air gun or as a paste allow to cure until tacky. The next bit is a huge time saver, so take it for what you will. Once the outside edge of the patch dries fully, but the inside is barely cured, gently wipe the surrounding area with an acetone laced paper or fiber towel. You'll thank me because a lot of your overspray and debris from around the patch will quickly be cleaned off with only a gentle rub. Allow the rest of the patch to cure fully, then begin the evening process with your sandpaper. For sandpaper, you've got a lot of choice. I'd recommend 3 different grits. 400, 600, and 1000 work best in my experience. 400 will allow you a shape, but not aggressively. 600 removes the remaining bits, but is fast enough to not take all day. Finally, 1000 gets you to a place where the buffing compound will absolutely shine it up, and again will allow for this to happen quickly. Finally, buffing. Your two friends here are either a red rouge stone, or polarshine. I know the later is a product, but the other stuff I've used is aquaglass...and I wouldn't recommend. Apply the rouge stone to the buffer, or the abrasive to the surface. Buff in tight circles, oscillating the head so that no one spot on the buffer head makes contact for more than 10-20 seconds. I see that using the edge is done in the video...but when you're looking for more control you should use the buffer face. An edge can easily grab onto features and wind up causing issues. Not to say it's not valid, just a lot more prone to failure. I personally would recommend red rouge for most people. The stick is stable, it'll last months or years for the average person, and it doesn't dry out into a flaky lump if left unattended. Now...why should you listen to anybody in the comments? Well, the simple answer is that I make Bathtubs. I've been white head to toe more than once, and I've repaired everything from a surface crack to a gigantic missing chunk because somebody decided to jump around in a bathtub and put their foot through a seat. You're welcome to discount the advice...but it's hard to consider it trivial when you've got 300+ units to finish in a day and about 5 minutes a unit of repair within cycle time. I could be lying...I could be pulling ratios out of thin air. Believe me if you're willing, but I can attest that boating and bathtubs are functionally the same process...and those with experience might know the MVP of guns in more Venusian than you'd think....

great video,, thanks

Now people understand why fiberglass repairs cost more money then you think, this is not a DIY lol great job keep them coming I love this!!

Nice work dude

Nice work thank you

Wow great job brotha! coming from an aviation background and learning how stringent the methods must be for aircraft, I recognize this guys skill and dedication to this craft. He really cares and has pride in his work. But agree on the safety gear. at lease a good dust mask a glasses

Exelent video 👍

Just wanted to echo seadrifts comments. Refreshing to see a young man with such detailed knowledge and a passion for his work. But the amount of labor that goes into those repairs , I guessing that is now an 80k boat from 1980s after all that work lol.

Holy s#%^+, such attention to detail 👍. Thank you sir 🙏

Thank you my friend

Excellent video, great presentation showing how it's done without too much talk! I would like to know how you color match gel coat when you're not working with plain white.

Good video what was the compound you used to buff with I hate having compound all over the boat when it's a small spot

i really liked this and you can tell justin knows what hes doing... the only thing I left wanting to know is ... he did this like a spot repair on a well maintained boat but the boat he is working on has a lot of damage ... I would have liked to have known how he would have done the whole boat I am guessing he would have done all the grinding for the whole boat and then the filler and then sprayed the whole boat with gel coat and sanded and buffed the entire boat at once

Hi guys quick one for you. what tool did you use on the Dremel great vid. thanks

What’s the benefit of using the adtec after the resin? Just to get it smoother? Also do you make is slightly below level so that the gelcoat is even with the other ?

I'd love to see before and after both surface and zoomed in.

Artist

As a paint and body man by trade I have to say this is interesting. Can you not smoke gel coat in like we do clear?

Nice work! viewers need to realize this was a demo for diy people. If he were doing that boat he would be doing all 15 nick repairs at the same time! I am not sure if you need to add cf to the mix but I am sure they do it for a reason or they wouldnt be doing it!

Missing some key points from this video: 1) For larger holes I can mix resin and fiberglass cloth fiber...and add the aerosil to make it thicker? I've had problems adding resin to the bottom of a hull (working upside down necessarily, I cant invert the boat) and having it drip. The aerosil will help with this? 2) Once the resin mixture is dry, then I use the P-77 filler? Can I use the aerosil with this also to prevent sagging? Gravity is my enemy here. 3) The p-77 dried and sanded... I presume what you're spraying on after this at the end is the polynt 944 GelCoat paint - can I color match this to a kawasaki jet ski hull white?? I dont have a spray gun kit, can I just brush apply this and sand it?

I have a Swift Canoe with spider cracks that just appeared on the side of the hull, they are sending me (buying it for $90.00 total with shipping from Canada after I paid almost $3000 for the boat new and used only once!) It is said that the repair can be done if I have a good hand to follow the channels with the dremel tool which I think I am good enough to do those but I can see of all the work involved for a small area wonder how long will take me to do a job that would really blend and erase the cracks on the hull they are sending me the material they use so the color is White Champagne; they are including the hardener; but here you are working with far more materials; will my repair be an amateur one after done because of those differences? I am confident and have a good eye for blending and working with the tools needed but I only have the dremer tool and the rest would be using sand paper and sanding blocks; suddenly I wonder if it would not be best to just prep and work in the whole area of the cracks which is about 20inch long by 7 inch high rather than follow all the crack in channels???

Good work thank you.

I hit tree backing up crack 4 to 5 inches long . Chip under rubber bumper . Would Marine -Tex be ok to use after get down to the fibber glass ?

Hi, I really liked your video, you could make a video how to mix the gel coat to use in a spray gun, and which gel coat to use, there are two, one that has wax and the other that does not have wax. I want to do some repairs in a small boat. thanks...

Hello nice work, you skipped over mentioning what compound your brushing on, can you share?

Where do you get that carbon stuff? It's new to me

Mylar film over smaller repairs can eliminate or reduce need to sand , smooth and polish.

Hi, what brand of pneumatic polisher you use? Best regards

Hi ! Good job ! Please tell me what is the name of the paste from 11 minutes 6 seconds ?

Now that little spot makes the rest of the boat look bad! 😝

Hello Justin! Great work with the Gelcoat! What chemical do you use to clean your paint gun after spraying the Gelcoat? Thanks

Sorry to ask, but how much an hour would you charge for your excelente,super detailed work?

Thanks for the tutorial. It would be helpful to show the products you used. How is the color matched?

Did not know about the rolling tape to get the edge soft!!

How do I fix a burn from someone buffing a boat that did not know what they were doing?

What dremel tool is that youre using?

Great, now after a half a day of work we now have about 4 square inches of gelcoat that looks 10X better than the rest of the boat. If we multiply that out, it should only take about four to six months to complete the rest of the boat.

Could you post a materials list and links where to buy them, Adtec, Aerosil(?), MEK and a link to buy carbon fiber? Thank you!

Hello, I am thinking to have a small sauna in the after kabin of my glass fiber sailboat? May this project go well if I investering in a proper isolation? Or it that just an insane idea?

بالسلامة يا أبا نضال.

It kicks and shrinks. Got it.

what is your sprayer setup?

What was the carbon stuff you were putting on before sanding? Also what was that white polishing compound

nice video , what is the purpose of the black powder?

I find cracks using guide coat. It will show all the tiny cracks easy.

First, thank you for the video. I appreciate the opportunity to learn from you but please answer me this. It seems like you taped off an area to repair and there are 2 or 3 more scratches or indents in the gelcoat that are inches away from the repair that your working on. At what point do you say to hell with it and sand blast the entire hull down to glass and just re-prime and paint? How many of these small dings and cracks can you repair in a day? Also does the color or age of the of the gelcoat ever become an issue?

I got this job to do on my boat, I thought to dremel the cracks, then use gelcoat putty only, here I am seeing he is first closing it up with polyester resin and cabosil, then after he is using gelcoat. is the gelcoat alone not good enough?

Mate awesome video thanks for sharing. I'm in Australia and I'm trying to diy a few little scratches and one half decent gauge where I missed the first keel roller. Hi did you spray a thin layer of gelcoat on the area and not wear it away sanding? I painted mine on and as I sand I keep coming back to see the fibreglass underneath and have to redo it over again. I've had to reapply the gelcoat heaps and it keeps happening. Any advice really appreciated mate. Thanks again for sharing and helping us 👍