Gelcoat adhesion to canopy problem

Yep, 9B is right. Cover it with wing tape until you can do it right. I
did a ASH-26 last year with the same problem. As I tried to get the
loose stuff off, more started chipping off, ended up flipping most off
with a razor blade. It looked like Schleicher used 600 grit which
isn't nearly rough enough. Water works its way under the edge and away
it goes.
JJ


On Feb 20, 5:00*am, wrote:
On Feb 19, 6:58*pm, chris wrote:





Good feedback so far. *Just to clarify: I'm just trying to do spot
repairs, [at least right now for this season]. *The gel is chipping
off in small pieces the size of a, grain of rice, fingernail clipping
to the size of a full fingernail/small coin. *So I don't think
spraying makes sense. *Getting sandpaper into the spot is difficult
because some areas are no wider than they are deep, and you have to be
careful to not scratch the main clear part of the canopy that is
directly adjacent.

The chips are the full thickness / single layer of gel. *It is about
as thick as 2-3 pieces of paper.

Maybe I should consider next year having it all stripped down, all the
gel removed and a totally redone, right now I just need to get patched
for the spring.

If I put primer on the plexiglass, would gelcoat adhere to a layer of
paint primer?

Chris

I had the same problem. *The issue for me was that much of the gelcoat
was not bonded to the plex, even if it hadn't chipped yet so spot
fixes were going to be an ongoing, time-consuming process. Gelcoat


doesn't bond well without some surface area, so you are talking about
sanding down an area around each chip that may be larger than the chip
itself, adding new gelcoat, then sanding and polishing the whole thing
without sanding through anywhere and without scratching the canopy. In
the process of doing this you could easily make new chips and in any
event new ones will appear in un-repaired areas. In my case I just
covered the border with wing tape until I could do a proper job.

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