Making an old kayak new again

[Alex Debski]

I am thinking about a MAJOR project for my Black on White Explorer. After this repair I may look to sell the boat, or I may fall in love with her again and get back into my long distance paddling.

Has anyone resurfaced a sea kayak 100%??? Hull and Deck, sand down the gel coat completely and reapply a new coat.

Back in November I believe Pru and David suggested a fellow paddler had done this before. Who was it? My explorer has scratches and spider cracks and big cracks and chips all over. At this point it's just not worth grinding out each imperfection and filling them in. But I do wonder, could I possibly sand down the rough gel coat and reapply without those cracks showing through after a short time?

 

Looking for some advice or someone to tell me not to bother trying!

[rfolster]

i believe Rick Crangle has done this.  Might be worth reaching out to him.

[prudenceb]

You might contact Jonathan Oltz.  He's probably the person David and I mentioned.

[Paul Sylvester]

Yes I have done this with mixed results. Gel coat is not made to be applied after the boat is completed...(so far as I have ever known)  Maybe if you can spray it on? But you can use a surfacing gel coat on small areas and get good results with buffing.

  I have seen some real messes from these attempts with gel coat. For the decks a very fine grit and then buffing up through the grits can do a lot. 

Why not chase out some spider cracks, store it dry and just paddle it?      Black is tough as it shows so the dings and flaws.

Explorers are ok if they have scars...

[SeaKayakNE]

I have done this.  My honest suggestion is it really depends.  The biggest factors are do you have the space and equipment to do it?  In order to do it you need about 6 working hours not including cure time.  Essentially you would need to sand the top few layers of gel down, then route any and all spider cracks.  If you miss just one it will cause the new gelcoat to crack.  Then it needs to be sanded again to smooth out the filler.   The difficult part, laying new gelcoat. I have rolled it and sprayed it.  Spraying is the only way so you need a good air compressor and gun.  Then it needs to be sprayed and cured to about 75 degrees.  Then it all needs to be wet sanded and buffed.  In all it’s time consuming and pretty expensive, especially if your not doing it as part of a business.

So that’s really just the basics of it all. So to answer your question, yes you need to sand and route every crack or you will see the cracks reappear. 

[detorres]

https://briannystrom.com/kayaking/tutorials/