To protect those areas, try using Marine Goop thinned to maple syrup
consistency with Toluene or Xylene. Use 4-5 coats, waiting 1 hour between
coats, then let fully cure for a week. Dries clear and shiny and does a
great job of protecting rash prone areas.


"Frank" wrote in message
...
Might want to try some urethane in that area.
Gelcoat is hard, whereas urethane is like "rubber"...
Spray some urethane on some paper, let it dry... then you can fold,
spindle and roll it without cracking.

Kilo Charlie wrote:
In Arizona we land on runways with lots of rocks. Rocks probably help to
create some of our awesome conditions but they really do a spanking on
the gelcoat.

My LS-8 has a fiberglass tail fairing....compound curves and part of the
tail overall. The rocks are thrown into it from the front and kicked up
from the tailwheel into the back section both causing substantial damage
(chunks out of both front and back) to the fairing.

So....every couple of years I turn the fuselage over and do some minor,
non-structural repairs to the fairing. The past couple of years have
been especially harsh and so I took down the gelcoat to the glass well
beyond the damaged section, glassed in a new and slighty beefier fairing
at both the front and back sections. Having used gelcoat to finish the
job the last time I spent way more time sanding down the gelcoat than the
rest of the repairs.

So my question is.....is there a simpler way to do this? Prestec or some
other paint maybe? Does the fact that it takes me so long to finish the
gelcoat mean that I am doing it all wrong?

Thanks for the help in advance!

Casey Lenox
KC
Phoenix