Repairing Scratches

November 01, 2005
By David Bryant

Repairing Scratches

It’s bound to happen. You come into the dock a little bit too fast and get a stinger of a scratch across the hull of your boat. Fortunately you have another option besides forking over the $100 per inch that many repair shops charge or living with the unsightly blemish: repair it yourself. The thought of making the scratch even worse is enough to deter most boaters from this do-it-yourself project, but don’t worry! Repairing that scratch is almost fool-proof and usually results in a near-perfect finish.

• Pickup a marine-scratch repair kit such as “ US Marine Repair Paste Kit” from your local marine store.
• Clean the scratch thuroughly with rubbing alcohol.
• Mask off the scratch to avoid excess paste on other parts of the hull.
• Apply the paste and remove the tape from the masked off areas.
• Allow the paste to cure (the average time is around 2 hours but read the instructions that came with the kit).
• Wet sand the area with 350 grit sandpaper on a small foam block. Use plenty of water to keep the sand-paper wet! Gradually move upwards with 600-grit, 800-grit, and 1000-grit and, finally, finish by applying 3M Finesse-It II Finishing Material Machine Polish. You can use a polishing-wheel if you have access to one, but sanding by hand works just as good.

You might be a little apprehensive at first about putting sand-paper to the hull of your baby but after you see the results see your worries were unfounded.