Chipped Gelcoat Repair

[sjolie]

New here, so thanks in advance for your help.

Crawled underneath my O'day Mariner last night and noticed a couple good sized chips at the forward and starboard edges of the centerboard slot (since I've only had her less than one year, I'll blame previous owner...)

The largest is about 1 inch long and 1/2 high. The smaller about half the size of the larger. Both of them seem to be "chips" rather than gouges, meaning I can see clearly to the fiberglass mat underneath

Looking for insight into the best way to repair. This could not be in a less noticeable spot so asthetics is absolutely not an issue. I have one more "repair packet" (#105 resin and #205 hardener) and some high density filler (colloidal silica). There's enough of that to use, however I'm not sure if that material would be advisable.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Tim]

That'll work, but the silica will cause your repair to be quite hard, and resistant to sanding. But you can sand it--it's just tougher than it might be if you used a fairing filler, like 407 microballoons, in your mix.

[sjolie]

Thanks. What about Marinetex?

[Zach]

If you use colloidal silica... Make a mental note that you can work it after it has jelled up if you wet a finger and massage it to shape.

There is a small time window where you can shave it with a sharp chisel and have it cut rather than stick to the blade too... So you can do most of your cleaning up/squaring up the edge without having to do much sanding.