How to Refinish Small Cracks in Cockpit ?

[carlspackler]

Hi,

My Catalina 30 has a cockpit that seems pretty solid, but there are a few cracks that are just now visible. The floor is grey and the sides are white. What products are recommended for refinishing?

[boatman61]

Automotive body filler works well.... convienently it comes in grey and white...

[carlspackler]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Automotive body filler works well.... convienently it comes in grey and white...

Yes, I see, though filling the hairline cracks is not the problem. I would like to refinish the entire cockpit. Presumably this would be with some form of brush on epoxy, though if I must spray it I guess I can figure out something. These are hairline cracks.

[boatman61]

Ahh...you want to do the whole cockpit... why did you not say so...
Epoxy Resin with a dye of your colour choice... 3 coats.

[Vasco]

A buddy did his leaky cockpit with Rhino truck bed liner. Seemed to do the job. A bit strange on a boat but it worked.

[minaret]

You need to grind out and fiberglass all of the stress fractures. If you just put filler on them they will reappear and you will waste a lot of time and money. Dish them out with a grinder enough for a little piece of 10 oz. cloth followed by a couple of matts. You can rip the matt to fit and then roll it out flush on the repair surface for a pretty fair glass repair. Do all of the stress fractures like this at once, and then either do spot gelcoat repairs if there aren't too many or repaint the entire cockpit if you have lots.

[aboutgone]

First you need to determine what kind of cracks they are. Are they gel coat related? Do they extend into the fiberglass? Test sand an area to see exactly what is going on, you may have gel coat cracks caused by the gel coat being applied to thick..If so sand or grind them out a little and fair with west sys and cabosil . If they do extend into the glass, grind them out and lay in more glass and then fair.......Ed