[Ed]

Paraman-

For those annoying spidercracks that seems to appear everywhere on older boats (except of course on my Mako [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] ) here is what I would do.

Take a small die grinder (or Dremel rotary tool) and grind out every crack with a v-shape groove until you can no longer see any cracks. Then take some 36grit sand paper and rough up the edges along each crack. Then blow off or vaccum off all of the dust and wipe clean with acetone.

Next, get yourself some 24 ounce roven fiberglass (it looks like a braided basket) and pull out 3-4 strands that are the length of each crack. Take the strands and braid them together and lay on a piece of cardboard. Next, wet out the strands with resin and place them in each crack.

After the fiberglass cures, you'll need to go over each section and grind and fair them match the surface. Since this is kind of an art and you are a new to it, I would only grind down enough so that the surface of the repair area is slightly higher than the rest of the boat. Then, take a sanding block with 80grit paper and sand down the repair until smooth/flat. (Most pro's can grind down most of the repair flush on the first try and then clean it up with either a block, da or airboard depending on the size & shape of the repair area). If your cracks are not on an existing flat surface (i.e. a channel on the edge of the floor that drains water to the stern)....forget the sanding block and wrap the sand paper around something (PVC pipe)that closely matches the shape of the surface you are trying to duplicate.

Once that is done, fill in any pin holes with white fairing putty (use white hardener too....don't use the red or blue stuff...it will cause color problems later on). Next, brush on some white gelcoat and fair (sand again). The white gelcoat will help hide the repair.

Blow off dust, and wipe clean with acetone. Now you are ready for spraying ongelcoat that is tinted to match your boat. ( I could write 10 pages about this...but I think you get the picture).

Let me know if you have any questions. Also if I left something out...I am sure one of the real experts will chime in.

Good luck.

Ed