Our recommended guidelines for repairing cracked gelcoats and laminates are:

1. Start by assessing the damage – is the gelcoat cracked? Is the laminate below it cracked?

2. Remove damaged material, if the damage has continued into the laminate, continue to abrade until there are no signs of cracking in the laminate.

3. Review our guidelines below on the minimum and maximum depths for each layer of the repair.

4. The gelcoat repair should be built up in 300-500 micron individual applications with a wax solution only used in the final layer. (2% Solution MW).

Top tips

Additional laminate or filler layers should be given adequate time to cure. Overnight cure at temperatures of 20°C or higher is best.

Gelcoat applications can all be applied on the same working day. (apply normal ‘back up’ checks before proceeding with subsequent layers, tacky but no gelcoat coming away). The final layer will need wax.

Sanding, polishing or finishing of the new gelcoat surface should be done 24 hours after the last gelcoat layer was applied.