[Briguy]

Brent,

It depends what you are looking for. Strength? Beauty? Both? If you are a beginner, getting it to look "factory" may be tough. However, as a beginner making it strong is relatively easy. My solution would go like this.

Get yourself an air compressor if you can and with 80 grit sand/grind the gel coat off about 3-4 inches on either side. I would use epoxy resin and cloth mat. Since you scraped it once, you may scrape it again and epoxy is about 3x as strong and more adhesive. Use fiberglass cloth about 6 inches wide x the length of the scratch. 2 layers should be good enough. Once it sets up you can fill and gel coat. You can probably do the entire fix for under $100 bucks. You will nead, fiberglass cloth(buy extra), a pint of epoxy and medium hardner, rubber gloves(10 pair)-try Home Depot and buy the stronger ones, a roller, 80, 120, 180 grit paper, 1 1/2 inch paint brushes, 3-4 buckets(HD), quart of filler,filler applicator, pint of gel coat, flexible sanding block, disposable respirators and drop cloth. Good luck.