: I have just bought a couple of old fiberglass kayaks with a view to resoring
: them, but am not sure of the best way to achieve this. Any comments would
: help.
: Basically the 14ft kayak is a fibreglass construction with a shiney blue
: coating - I assume this is a coloured gelcoat? The kayak has loads of
: scratches, a couple of holes and minor dings and lots of colour fading.
: I was assuming the best approach was to sand the whole thing, almost back to
: fiberglass - I was then going to refiberglass areas where required until
: the kayak looked stable - does this sound correct?
: The next step I am not sure of, can I re gelcoat the whole lot? Or can I just
: prime and spray paint? I obviously want a nice looking smooth surface, but
: when I search the Internet, gelcoating seems to only be mentioned for
: fixing small areas. Also, if I painted, I don't see how I could get the
: service smooth.
: Where am I going wrong!! Any pointers? Am very keen but lacking the
: knowledge!

You sure you want to do this? It's an awful lot of work for old qestionable boats.

Assuming you do, sand the surface to get rid of the majority of the scratches, don't get near the fiberglass, it'll stick just fine to the gelcoat. Dewax ths surface (acetone) and then patch any problem areas. I'd then use a sanding primer, there are several for the auto body business that work for this, gets rid of the rest of the scraches. Then paint. Gelcoat is designed for use in a mold, it doesn't flatten out like paint. It can be applied but you really don't want to go thru "that" much work.

Bill H.