spider crack question

[hiliner222]

Is there a material or epoxy to fill/smear over spidercracks when preping for repainting? Something that wont recrack? I've seen how there to be ground down til there gone and then filled and faired but this boat has alot of them so trying to save some labor time. See pic

[Bushwacker]

That boat has seen some hard use! Some of it is also probably due to the fact that polyester resin gets increasingly brittle with time. Terry (Island Trader) had lots of those on his 21; I believe he covered most of the topsides with lightweight (4 oz?) fiberglass cloth(roving) and epoxy resin to prevent them from coming through the paint. I'm sure he can provide more details on how to do that. Plan on LOTS of sanding, fairing, sanding, etc.!

[hiliner222]

As far as i can tell it looks like the gelcoat is spidered but the glass looks good. Gesh i'd hate to put a compleate layer of glass over everything. With todays materials i figured someone came out with a good bonding flexible epoxy or filler that would work for gelcoat spider cracking? I've seen Islandtraders build thread and will revisit on this topic, thankyou.

[heynow2203]

Ya grind the area that's cracked gel then glass the area in fair it out then paint it but could get them elsewhere down the road with hard use

[Islandtrader]

Originally Posted by hiliner222

Is there a material or epoxy to fill/smear over spidercracks when preping for repainting? Something that wont recrack? I've seen how there to be ground down til there gone and then filled and faired but this boat has alot of them so trying to save some labor time. See pic

I hate to be the bearer of bad news...but there is no other way around than sanding down and glassing over. I basically did the whole cap and transom. Plus I did the bottom where the stringers where flexing and causing spider cracks. When I did a sea trial every place I glassed on the bottom held up and no cracks reappeared. However one place where I just ground out and filled showed a hairline again...so I glassed it and faired out.

Pick 2 out 3, Time-$-Fairing

[hiliner222]

Originally Posted by Islandtrader

I hate to be the bearer of bad news...but there is no other way around than sanding down and glassing over. I basically did the whole cap and transom. Plus I did the bottom where the stringers where flexing and causing spider cracks. When I did a sea trial every place I glassed on the bottom held up and no cracks reappeared. However one place where I just ground out and filled showed a hairline again...so I glassed it and faired out.

Pick 2 out 3, Time-$-Fairing

Yeah i was afraid of that, thanks.