4200 or 5200 for sealing dents?

I dropped my boat when loading it onto its trailer and dented it. It looked like it only went through the gel coat and I'm wondering whether I should use 4200 or 5200 3M sealant. The boat was fine when I sailed it throughout a regatta but it doesn't look aesthetically pleasing.

Thank you!
 
Difficult to say what would be best without seeing what and where the damage is, but if it were me, I would repair whatever was damaged with whatever was used. So I would use gelcoat if the damage was to the gelcoat, fiberglass if the damage is to the underlying fiberglass.

There are plenty of threads on this forum and videos on youtube that will show you how to work with these materials. From personal experience, if you go slow and follow the advice, you will end up with great results.

Maybe I'm totally wrong, but I always think of 4200 and 5200 as adhesive sealants and not a structural material.

If you post a picture, I am sure others will chime in with exactly what is needed.

Good luck!
 
Difficult to say what would be best without seeing what and where the damage is, but if it were me, I would repair whatever was damaged with whatever was used. So I would use gelcoat if the damage was to the gelcoat, fiberglass if the damage is to the underlying fiberglass.

There are plenty of threads on this forum and videos on youtube that will show you how to work with these materials. From personal experience, if you go slow and follow the advice, you will end up with great results.

Maybe I'm totally wrong, but I always think of 4200 and 5200 as adhesive sealants and not a structural material.

If you post a picture, I am sure others will chime in with exactly what is needed.

Good luck!
thats it right there
 

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It's hard for me to understand what I am looking at, but it looks like just the gelcoat has been chipped away. Are the white lines glass fibres or are they cracks or a crush zone? If fibres then I would use just gelcoat. Given that it looks like the damage might be on the edge where the stern meets the bottom, you will likely have to do a couple of applications. Make sure to use a sanding block to get a smooth transition. I would wet sand starting at 320 and go up as high as your patience will allow. Follow that by buffing compound .

If the glass is cracked, I would push on it and see if there is any movement. If not I would just use epoxy and let the cracks soak it in. After that I would use gelcoat. Even if it moves a little, I would try letting the epoxy soak in. Grinding out the damaged glass and then laying in new glass is a ton of effort given where the damage appears to be. If it was in the middle of bottom then ok, but where it seems to be, I would keep it simple and go sailing.
 
What the picture shows is the lowest part of the transom. A partly blurry lower gudgeon and as wjejr concluded the rounding between the bottom of the hull and the transom. The damage seems to be just gelcoat chipped away.
 

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