Fairing a polyester hull

   It is indeed a matter of a single dent left by a previous owners wrong trolley cradle. about 5 mm deep, 200 mm long and 80 mm wide. At that depth I am assuming some of the foam has been compressed. 
I am not planning on getting anywhere near the foam and everything will be done with basic hand tools (sanding block, fairing board, batten). It is a relatively low value boat that will require a new paint job at some point, so I do not intend to just cover a patch with paint.

I have no idea why anyone would consider using car repair putty or anything along those lines. Seems odd. Even Plastic Padding fillers strike me as suboptimal. At the same time my understanding is that using epoxy is a bad idea when a gelcoat finish of the repair is the aim.

By the sounds of it any general use of marine polyester from a composite supplier (cfs, east coast resin, etc.) should be fine?

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ChrisB14 Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Posting king Joined: 29 Oct 13 Location: London Online Status: Offline Posts: 101	Post Options Post Reply Quote ChrisB14 Report Post Quote Reply Topic: Fairing a polyester hull Posted: 03 Oct 15 at 5:52pm
	It is indeed a matter of a single dent left by a previous owners wrong trolley cradle. about 5 mm deep, 200 mm long and 80 mm wide. At that depth I am assuming some of the foam has been compressed. I am not planning on getting anywhere near the foam and everything will be done with basic hand tools (sanding block, fairing board, batten). It is a relatively low value boat that will require a new paint job at some point, so I do not intend to just cover a patch with paint. I have no idea why anyone would consider using car repair putty or anything along those lines. Seems odd. Even Plastic Padding fillers strike me as suboptimal. At the same time my understanding is that using epoxy is a bad idea when a gelcoat finish of the repair is the aim. By the sounds of it any general use of marine polyester from a composite supplier (cfs, east coast resin, etc.) should be fine?
	B14 GBR 748 Bullet B In build: Farr 3.7 GBR 410 (both sail number and the current number of loose parts)

Paramedic Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Really should get out more Joined: 27 Jan 06 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 929	Post Options Post Reply Quote Paramedic Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 06 Oct 15 at 8:29am
	at 5mm deep you'd be ok to fill with gelcoat, but i wouldn't if it was too much deeper. It's inside my personal limit for filling a crease though, it's presumably not a flat 5mm deep and the hull is presumably pretty stiff at that point. The trouble with gelcoat is it's not very flexible, but in this case as long as the prep of the dent is OK i'm pretty confident gelcoat will be fine. Edited by Paramedic - 06 Oct 15 at 8:33am