> A friend of mine has asked me to refresh the gelcoat of his (ancient)
> marnier. I proposed doing this with West 105 resin with 209 hardener and a
> whitening agent. Is this the best course over polyesther fiberglass? How
> compatable are the two materials, and what sort of prep work would you
> recommend? Many thanks oh guru of polymers. I await your reply dread
> sovereign.

Yes, you can use West epoxy ( or anybody elses epoxy) as an overcoating. Epoxy is generally the answer for fixing fiberglass as it will bond to Polyester. There are other things to try that may be cheaper. It depends on the damage or wear.

First, there are hull cleaners. West has a onestep fiberglass cleaner and wax that removes oxidation and seals the surface: $7 a pint. There are other hull cleaners from $8 a quart on up. If this is all that is needed, then you don't have to sand or repaint. Check out your nearest boating supply store.

In a word: PAINT

Why bother with expensive epoxy when a polyurethane (or other base) marine paint might do the trick? There are all kinds of paints designed for fiberglass hulls. If you don't want to bother with replacing the gel coat, sand things smooth and put on a layer of bottom coat paint. Many brands, colors, and features. Why add a whitening agent to clear epoxy? Put on a glossy white paint.

Then there is an Interlux product called InterProtect Epoxy Coating ($45 a gallon) The ad blurb on that says it can be used to repair blistered gelcoats. West has a product called BottomPoxy Barrier Coat System ($40 a gallon) that sounds similar. There are also vinylester fiberglass repair products from 3M.

Other than that there are MANY different approaches to this. And are you ever lucky to have asked this question this week, as I just got a sale flyer from E&B Marine, which has 4 pages of items that could solve your problems. The prices and blurbs I quoted are from that. The flyer also has a column called ``The West Advisor'' which is too long for me to retype, but seems to answer any questions you might have about repairs like this. General process: repair blisters and cracks i the gel coat. cover with a barrier coating (which may be an epoxy, or it might be something else) the cover everything with a bottom paint.

Their website and online catalog is www.westmarine.com Unfortunately, when I checked their index for Maintenance, and clicked on the Gelcoat Repair line: That area had no text!

Hope this helps.

Paul Jacobson