Laser Repair

tomc13

New Member
Hey all

Working on bringing back this Laser and was wondering about best practices to repair the damage shown in the attached photos. She is obviously well worn so not looking to repair to class specs or anything but would like to tackle the gelcoat damage. Should I dremel these out, gelcoat and then wet sand? Should I approach the bow and deck damage differently from the nicks below that waterline? Particularly concerned with the cracks around the daggerboard trunk, as I believe she is taking on some water there. Let me know if you need me to snap some more photos!

Cheers
 

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Mine, I just fixed, had the same exact problems, fairly simple and straight forward procedures. As you said, I used a Dremel to sand out the cracks back to stable material, careful not to go deep into the fiberglass. The daggerboard trunk where it might be deep, mine was about 1/4" at the deepest, so I just filled in with gelcoat. It looks like someone already tried to repair some of yours, curious if you could sand that down flush with the surrounding surface. The bow and side of the deck I just used gelcoat since it does not go below the fiberglass. Sanding I used 150 grit to knock the rough edges of the epoxy/gelcoat down (careful not to sand the surrounding non-repaired gelcoat), then 180/220 to the level of the surrounding surface, then 2500/3500/wax with orbital to finish the repair. I ended up doing (polishing) the whole bottom. Prep is the key, taping off area, grinding it down, cleaning with Acetone before applying epoxy or gelcoat. I still have a few scratched I didn't repair, only took care of the deep ones. Hope to get to the other scratches later this year or maybe next. Wet sanding and buffing them out actually help aesthetically in my mind. Depending on the weather, you could fill in all of the holes, scratches in one pot if everything was prepped. I started with one hole to test my abilities first before hammering out the rest. Good Luck, plenty of videos online to watch pros do it. Let us know if you have any questions, and post some after pics!
 
Most of these glass repairs follow the same general principles. Just apply them differently depending on situation. Several good resources for info.
 

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