I know this must have been covered somewhere on here, but what do you use to fill in the scratches that can't be ..readily sanded out? My friend suggested something called fairing compound. I know there are gelcoat repair kits out there too. But being frugal (some say cheapskate) I balk at the prices of those. Any suggestions?

TIA

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

A gelcoat repair kit is probably the best avenue as far as matching and robustness of repair go. Is this clear or coloured? Are you polishing or painting after?

The rayplex gelcoat repair kits are pretty inexpensive.

Gel Coat Scratches



I don’t bother filling superficial (usually white scratches) in gel coat. Where white scratches are an aesthetic bother, say further up the sides or on the stems my frugal (some say cheapskate) solution is to run a same-color Sharpie along the scratch.

https://myccr.com/phpbbforum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=49520

The red Sharpie on the Monarch isn’t quite the same shade, but it looks better than the white scratch. I was amazed how well the gold Sharpie hid scratches on the gold & black tweed of the clear Kevlar canoe; invisible on the black, hid the white on gold scratch completely.

Am I using a Sharpie to color in the thousand white bottom scratches of either canoe? No, but I can hide the ones higher up that semi-bother me to look at.

What kind of boat is it Wotrock? Some of the manufacturers have cheap kits available. Nova Craft has 2 and 4 oz
Kits for under 30$. Think the 2oz does a square foot. Used it on a Mad River boat and it looks acceptably good.

After years of trying buffing compound, etc, I finally used Spar Varnish on a cloth to wipe an extrememly thin coat of varnish. Restored the colour on the 25 year old gel coat as well! And added zero weight.

For nicks and larger, use JB Weld marine epoxy. https://www.grainger.ca/en/product/p/JW ... lsrc=aw.ds.

I've even used this to repair a bent shaft paddle blade that split off entirely. Super strong!

Thx, guys---lots of good suggestions.

Sharpie? Isn't that just a marker? So you just color the scratch but don't fill it in?

My boat is a Novacraft. I might give that a try but try that JB Weld stuff first.

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

Yes, for superficial gel coat scratches that show as white on pigmented gel coat I just color them in with a same color Sharpie. Not all of the scratches, just the ones above the waterline in areas less likely to scratch, where there are fewer. I see no point in hiding superficial scratches on the bottom of the hull where it will continue to get scratched.

P5250038 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

None of those scratches are deep, none are even close to gel coat depth near the Kevlar, and I am sure to add more.



JB Weld is a two-part epoxy paste the consistency of toothpaste, dark grey when mixed. I doubt a Sharpie will obscure the grey.

The JB weld I use is white when kneaded. Should take colour...esp after sanding.

Another option I've used is nail polish!

Reading through this thread I noted “JB Weld Marine”, which I guess is different from the hardware store JB Weld; that stuff is grey when mixed.

I have heard of using nail polish, and have used clear nail polish over small transfer letters to make personalized Bic lighters; it held up well over the life of a Bic.

I heard of using super-glue on small spider cracks and tried it; it held the spiderweb together, although using nothing at all has worked equally well on faint gel coat cracks, but it didn’t do much to hide them visually, leaving a teensy bead of super glue upstanding apparent.

I guess concern and remedy depends on the depth and severity of the gel coat damage, scratch, spider cracks or deep gouges.

I guess I should have said this from the beginning----In my case I want to fill in minor 'cavities' such as scratches before I repaint. So just coloring the scratches would be no advantage for me.

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

That does change things. You could fill the voids with gel coat or other filler.

Having no gel coat on hand I would clean out the gouges as best I could so they are clean of any contaminates and fill them with G/flex, either G/flex 650 (Toughened) or 655 (Thickened). The 650 is less viscous, more like honey when mixed. The 655 is thicker, more like toothpaste when mixed and less likely to run down curved surfaces.

With either laying a piece of peel ply over the G/flex would help level it out flush, especially with the 655. If you don’t have peel ply even wax paper will work if the area isn’t overly curvey, just be sure to sand off (and wash off) any wax residue before you paint.

Either of the G/flexes are slow to fully cure if filling a void; I’d give it a week before sanding/washing and painting.

Ha---I found a stick of JB Weld that I had 'in stock' in my camping gear. I tried it on a couple of spots and it seemed to work. It wasn't labelled as 'marine epoxy' but it is prob the same stuff.

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

Wotrock, I know this site can be problematic for posting photos, but I’d love to see in-process photos of the gel coat repairs and painting.

Hmmm--not sure if I want to. It will look so amateurish compared to your work. For one thing, I intend to use Tremclad paint. I don't see much point of using the expensive epoxy paints. Nothing can withstand scrapes over the Cdn Shield rocks.
Any work has been on hiatus for the last week or so as we swelter in temps around 30 C (Not sure what that is on that wonky temp scale you use down there ).

Re posting pix if I do decide to try. How you do it when you post so many? Posting any more than 2 or 3 normally exhausts my limited supply of patience.

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

I’ll bet two coats of Tremclad, rolled, tipped and wet sanded between coats will look better than you think. Hell, I spray painted a few canoes before I learned better. I believe Tremclad is the equivalent of Rustoleum down south. A quart of Rustoleum enamel is $17USD and a quart of Rustoleum Topside $34; I’m willing to go the extra 2X cost. On the other hand, Rustoleum enamel is available in any hardware store. Are you painting it the same-ish color as the hull?

30 Celsius is 303 Kelvin.



Posting multiple sequential photos gets confusing to me at times. I stop occasionally to write a description of what I am doing as I am doing it and take a relevant photo, noting where it goes in the ongoing text as “PHOTO skid plate covered with peel ply” or “PHOTO second coat wet sanded.

Stopping to write up and photograph the process slows my roll and gives me time to think about the next step instead of doing A, B, C, E, dangit I forgot to do D. And I often notice boo boos in photos that I somehow overlooked standing two feet from the canoe.

When done for the day (or days) the photos go on a Flickr album. I open the album, scroll through the Word document and when I see “PHOTO Tom struggling to tape the outwale” drop a link with the appropriate photo.

I know there is a way to move photos from a camera or phone to the computer and then insert them in text, but that is beyond my capabilities; even I can handle the Flickr method. Flickr is free for the first 1000 photos.