Hello guys!!

Not easy to tell from the pictures but looking at the thickness it looks like gelcoat rather than clearcoat. From what you say it sounds like the side skirt was flexed from underneath caused by contact with the ground causing the gelcoat to crack and delaminate. If you try sanding you will probably sand into the carbon. If you then apply clearcoat it will be very noticeable. I would scrape/flick off any loose bits of the gelcoat using a craft blade or pin, de grease the damaged areas and then fill those areas with epoxy resin using an artists paint brush. You could add a filler like glass beads to the resin to thicken it up. Keep building up the layers until it is slightly proud of the surrounding surface, then flat and polish. It wont be a totally invisible repair but should be pretty good.

Warren

Carbon Copies Ltd

Warren agrees with Warren on this one!

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

Just keep in mind that if you thicken up the resin with anything, you will lose the clarity. I'd probably tint the resin in that case so it isn't so noticeable, though I think I would rather just do thinner layers of clear resin so it doesn't sag. Takes longer but it will be less noticeable. If you cover your cup of resin with cling film then you can stick it in the freezer to delay the cure and pull it out when you want to apply another layer. 

Can you find out what Gelcoat was used origionaly? I managed to damage the Harp I made my wife and that looked simmilar. I picked off all loose pieces, And roughed it up with abrasive. Then over filled it with GC50. When set, I rubbed it down to level. Worked up through the grades of abbrasive then pollished it. Now I can't find 2 of the 3 patches of damage. Other people can not find the 3 patch but I know where it is.  ;-)
By the way. Forget what people say about GC50 not stickeng to cured GC50 or cured Epoxy. It does.

Brian.

By the way. Forget what people say about GC50 not sticking to cured GC50 or cured Epoxy. It does.

As far as I can tell, GC50 sticks very well to just about any clean, degreased surface ....    Very often to places where you do not want it ...

I have used it to repair quite af few cracks and imperfections, and as a very filling "clear coat"...  Brilliant stuff ...


"Sapere Aude"... Dare to KNOW!

The written word is the only truly efficient vehicle for transmitting a complex concept from mind to mind...

103% of all people do not understand statistics...

Do not adjust our mind, theres a fault in reality :-)

OK, thanks for the information.

First i am gonna take my chances in repairing...
And if it does not turn out nicely i wil make it as smooth as possible and make a entire new mold for the part.ure

It will be a gelcoat on the top of the part, so won't be affecting the strength of the part at all. 

I have repaired a kayak paddle that had very similar cracking in one of the blades.

The owner, who was a competition kayaker, was worried about the strength of a repair, and had been told that "it would never hold up, go buy a new blade" - "it will flex too much and fail..."

I took a look at the damage and decided on this approach:

First i flexed the blade at the damaged spot, to see which flakes of gelcoat/resin were loose enough to break them off for the repair, there really was not very much flex in the blade...

I broke off all the loose "flakes" and degreased the whole area around the damage. I used a small brush with stainless steel bristles to rough up the area. (this is a very neat way of getting a suitably rough surface on a very uneven surface!!, just make sure the brush has very fine bristles, and ONLY use it for this purpose, and clean it with solvent after each use My other "secret tool" for this is "titanium wool" made from very fine Titanium swarf from my lathe..  unlike steel wool there's no risk of contaminating a part with rusting iron particles.. )

I then put sealant gum tape as a "barrier" all around the damaged area, with about 5 - 7 cm distance to the damaged area..

I wrapped and secured vacuum bagging film to most of the sealant gum tape around the edge, but left an opening to brush in a liberal amount of infusion resin, sealed up the bag with a silicone infusion "plug inside", mounted a hose and put a vacuum on the sealed up "bag"

I left the "setup" for about 5 hours with the vacuum pump running, then switched it off and sealed up the hose with a clamp, and left it to cure untill the following evening, so that made a bit more than 24 hours i total.

I then removed all the vacuum bagging gear.  As expected the infusion resin had penetrated into the cracked areas, leaving all the cracks filled, but had also thinned out over the whole area of repair, covering it in a thin uneven layer of epoxy

That was not a real problem, i sanded the whole area down a bit, and used EC coating epoxy with a little added fumed silica to make it a bit thicker to build up the low spots.

After sanding and polishing the repair is virtually undetectable, and the owner says he can not feel any difference in the flex of the blade, it works perfectly, and as far as I know he still uses it, even though he is not doing high level competitions anymore ..

"Sapere Aude"... Dare to KNOW!

The written word is the only truly efficient vehicle for transmitting a complex concept from mind to mind...

103% of all people do not understand statistics...

Do not adjust our mind, theres a fault in reality :-)

Alright !! thanks! for the info! .. awesome to know it is possible!