One of the projects that every restorer of an old Corvette eventually has to tackle is a crack in the fiberglass. Corvette bodies are made entirely of fairly thin fiberglass, and the sensuous curves of our cars are what gives the bodywork some cross-section to maintain its rigidity. There are many ways to repair cracks in fiberglass—which one’s the best? Stress cracks, spider cracks, and hairline cracks in the decks of older boats are, of course, not rare. Sometimes, they’re merely cosmetic, meaning they don’t penetrate the gelcoat. To fix the crack, we first ground away material around the crack from the topside with the D-A sander, and we used a body grinder to get rid of the Bondo from underneath, being careful not to do more damage to the fiberglass of the body. They then applied fiberglass cloth with resin to support both sides of the crack.
Fiberglass Boat Stress Crack Repair
My I/O Boat Transom Repair Adventures > Fixing Stress Cracks
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Stress Cracks In Gel Coat
Apr 08, 2012 Stress cracks can be identified as long(er) parallel surface cracks on the hull or deck. Most common location for these to occur is on corners and radius’s where the layup of fiberglass is typically thinner, and the amount of resin is usually more than what it should be. Normally this process will do away with the stress crack. Sometimes a stress crack can reappear though, even if all the repair work was done properly. Sometimes if large surface areas are compromised underneath, in the fiberglass, stress cracks can reoccur.