Repairing Cracks on a fiberglass boat?

Question

I purchased an old fiberglass "bath-tub" type boat because I wanted the trailer it was on. I am now thinking of trying to restore the boat cosmetically and give it to my dad. The boat has small cracks in the outer-shell of the fiberglass all over. Just wondering could you fill the cracks in with bondo or something else. As I said, the cracks are on the outside of the boat and this would be strictly for looks. The boat does not leak.

Answer 1

The cracks your seeing most likely are "gel coat" cracks. The outside color coat that may be up to 1/4" thick. One boat in particular has such a thick coat, Mastercraft Co. Proper preparation of the exterior is a must. All cracks must be completely sanded or ground out til the exterior is smooth.
With proper surface preparation any exterior coating will crack in a short time.
Find a large boat store who has a professional gel coat person. It's an involved procedure. After proper surface preparation gel coat is sprayed on and the area around the boat is sealed off so no oxygen touches the new coating. This is done to hasten drying time. This color spay process is repeated a minimum of 6 times.

Answer 2

Depending on how bad the cracks are you could wet sand them to the point where it is level with the exterior fiberglass then when finished you will need to compound and then wax.

Answer 3

I would see how much it would cost to have this professionally done first before I would try to fix this myself. We just purchased a boat that is fiberglass and it had been damaged and fixed prior to our purchase and you cannot even tell where it was damaged. Good Luck!

Answer 4

shoot the whole area with feather fill.
it is a thin body filler / primer..made by bondo
then sand it and paint it