Years ago I loaned my kayak to a friend who at the time had cracked his surfski. At the same time I began travelling almost every week, so I really didn't think much about the kayak. Friends started telling me he was not taking care of it and it looked bad. Unfortunately that's when I found he had moved and changed jobs. Long story short, I just got the kayak back, and it was in shambles. The 'glass had delaminated from UV and from unrepaired cracks that infiltrated water. The wood was black. The hatches had been glued down, but there was water inside the hatches. The fiberglass peeled off like tape, so actually it came off very easily except on the bottom it took a few little bits of wood with it that will have to be filled because they are too deep to just sand down.

I peeled the fiberglass off and then applied acetone to try to loosen up the remaining fill coat. I sanded with 80 grit at first, but for the bottom I went to 60 grit because the fill coat was still very hard. I even used a plane and planed some areas down to get off the gunk. Once that was done I applied a solution of about 1 part bleach to 8 parts water... eyeballed, not measured perfectly, but about that ratio. I washed the whole thing down with a rag soaked in the bleach solution, letting it dry and doing this again a total of three times. Amazingly the whole thing came back to life. Below is a picture of the before, and then I will post a pic that is after sanding and bleaching, but I still have to finish sand and touch up some dark areas.

I am posting this so it may help anyone who has to re-glass a kayak or has damage and thinks it's completely ruined. Don't give up!!! Here's the before pic...