Has any one ever used Magic EZY jel-coat repair for miner  repairs. 

 

I have a friend who has a small hair line crack he needs to repair and was looking into this product but can't find any one who has used it to get any feed back.

 

 

If it's a stress crack in the gel coat, it can be a difficult repair.  It's not just a matter of filling the crack with a matching gel coat.  To get a good bond to the old gel coat, the crack would have to be thoroughly cleaned.  No small task in a hairline crack.

 

The next possibility is to use a Dremel with a small engraving bit to enlarge the crack.  That will get rid of the contaminated surfaces.  I'd suggest several coats of a carnauba wax before opening the crack.  That will prevent any excess gel from sticking anywhere but in the crack.  Apply the repairing gel with the tip of a toothpick, or something similar until you have a small bead above the surface of the surrounding area. 

 

You may find that the gel coat "jumps" from the toothpick or any other instrument to an area several inches from the crack.  Fiberglass and its assorted resins are very prone to electrostatic charges, particularly on cold dry days.  I've seen an arc jump three feet when pulling parts from molds.

 

 

Take a piece of wax paper and lay it over the gel coat and smooth out with a bondo spreader, then leave it alone until the material cures.  Depending on the properties of the repair material it can take anywhere from an hour to a day or more.  It may spread some onto the surrounding area, but the wax will prevent it from sticking. 

 

When you remove the wax paper, any resin that has spread onto the surrounding area should peel right off, and break off at the crack. 

 

Then wet sand the excess above the surrounding are with a very fine wet sandpaper.  Keep it wet, and sand as small an area as possible.  Use a sanding block to keep the area smooth.

 

Then buff the repair until it matches the surrounding area.

 

Now, here's where the monkey wrench gets thrown into the works.  If the crack was a stress crack, and the chances are more likely than not that it is, all that work will be for naught as it is likely to return.  Gel coat is generally brittle, and the thicker it is the less it will flex, and the more susceptible it will be to stress cracks.

 

Stress cracks are not usually a structural problem, though in some cases they may indicate that one exists.

 

It's impossible to tell without actually looking at the boat.