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I am getting ready to finally try and tackle the restoration of my '65 13' sport. It has extreme crazing throughout the hull and interior. I am not terribly concerned with keeping this original and will mostly be using it for fishing and pleasure runs on an inland lake. Would it be feasible to just sand and paint the entire boat, or is it necessary to gel coat the boat? I really don't have a lot of cash to invest in this and looking for low cost way to get this boat useable. Any help is greatly appreciated!

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yes you can sand down prime and paint. search out paint and use the best you are willing to spend the money on.

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I am in the middle of restoring an antique fiberglass non Whaler that also has extreme crazing and gel coat cracks. I am going a different route with this boat than the usual expensive AwlGrip I usually use. I have just finished the paint job, and it looks as good as AwlGrip anyway. Whether it is as durable, we will see. The boat stays under cover when not in use anyway. To take care of the crazing, the best way I have found, is first to sand the entire boat as smooth as possible, after repairing any damaged areas with polyester resin glass mat and a good quality Bondo. Then skim coat the bad areas or the entire boat as I did with Evercoat PolyFlex (see link below) This is basically a thinned out Bondo material available from Automotive paint stores. After sanding, I primed the boat with acrylic lacquer (grey), fixed any remaining defects and primed again. If it was a Whaler I would have used an epoxy primer (automotive) for more durability but more cost too. then I sprayed the boat with a good grade of Automotive Acrylic enamel, which was very easy to use and looks as good as Awlgrip too, but may or may not last as long. This is an economical way to paint your boat, but it is not a "cheap" paint job. You can spray or brush and roll you boat with Pettit Easy poxy, but it will become a yearly event. Evercoat PolyFlex cost $37 per bottle, I used two on a 14`boat.

http://www.evercoat.com/productDetail...aspx?pID=8

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Awesome thread...I'm going to da home depot and get some sand paper, I want to sand her down bare, clean her up real well and have it weighed.Need to rig up something to get off of the trailer...

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Thanks all for the help! I'm going to start this Monday.

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Just hook a rope to a tree or stationary obstacle and to the transom, hook the trailer to a vehicle and just pull the boat off. Do it on the grass, and preferably in the shade.

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Actually I meant puul the trailer from under the boat.

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I found a belt sander is a great tool in heavy removal of gel coat. I have a regular size and a little 2 in wide belt on a porter cable sander that is awesome. I know most will yell No belt sander but for heavy work it cant be beat. you will still have to run over it with a orbital but you will save a ton of time and paper if you use the little belt sander first. Start slow and use very light pressure until you see how it works for you.

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Boats are mostly concave surfaces. Belt sanders have flat surfaces and make flat spots on concave surfaces that can show up when gloss paint is applied. That being said I`ve used belt sanders myself on boats, but mostly on flat transoms or around areas that will be repaired with addition of new glass or bondo. Actually an angle grinder with a sandpaper disc will work alot faster than a belt sander and if used in a circular motion will not leave flat spots.

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If you truly want a keeper 13' Whaler, I would suggest that you clean up the one you have and sell it. Use the money to buy one that is much closer to the condition that you want your boat. If the motor on your current boat is in great shape buy the second boat first and swap engines. Some 13' are just not worth the effort. This may sound like heresy but it is good advice.

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If you use an angle grinder be aware it is very easy to make divits if not held flat. Both of the above mentioned methods are for removeing a lot of materal. You will have to scale back to a orbital sander of some type when you get closer to finish surface.

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This is good advice.

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Here are some pics, I took this morning as I started skim coating the deck of my `59 14` Sea Fury, using Poly Flex. I had already done the outside of the hull, and bottom, and sanded, primed, painted,and set the boat back on its trailer. Poly Flex will fill all of the imperfections in the glass, after the boat was repaired, new transom, ground down with the angle grinder,and disk sander. and then sanded with an orbital sander. After skim coating, it gets sanded again smooth with the orbital, then primed, then any imperfections fixed with more Poly Flex, then primed again, wet sanded, and finally painted. I would never attempt to restore a Whaler in this shape, as there are better ones around, but where am I going to find another boat like this? THIS MIGHT BE MY LAST ONE, THOUGH!! LOL

The first pic looking aft shows the bad condition of the gunwales, the middle pic. shows the Poly Flex, a small puddle with the hardener ready for stirring, and the plexiglass I use to mix it on and the spreader. This stuff is like thin Bondo, sets in about 3 minutes, but when set is still extremely flexible and won`t crack like bondo or MarineTex. Is is made primarily for filling gouges in plastic car bumpers, so it makes it ideal for fiberglass.

http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c19...y%20resto/

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Thanks again! I'm really leaning toward selling it at this point, but I know in this condition it's practically worthless. I can't bring myself to trashing it.

If I were to sand the Gel Coat down, can I then layer glass resin on top? Will it adhere to the coat or do I need to lay down cloth?

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Hi all, just purchased a 1971 13' standard model. After looking at this site cant wait to get started working on it! I assume crazing means the small cracks in the gel coat? Some one mentioned weighing his boat, is this to see if it's waterlogged?

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If you lightly sand then prime/paint, I guarantee the crazing will come right through the paint after a little bit. I think your options are
1. use as is, accept crazing,
2. sand way down, then gelcoat,
3. use Binkie's method to fill the cracks,
4. sell

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If you sand down and gelcoat, I doubt you will get you money back if you account for the amount of time it takes. You will go through a lot of sand paper too.