Repairing gel coat prior to paint

[Brisyboy]

Hi,

I am about to start painting (roll and tip 2pack epoxy) the cabin of our boat. I have a few areas of gelcoat that are either cracked, chipped or both and I would like to repair them before paint. I shall enlarge the cracks and feather the chips however do I just use gel coat or will epoxy thickened with micro balloons or is there a better option?

Thanks

 

[diver dave]

I don't think epoxy primer is necessary for above water line. You do want something easily sandable, and a number of one part high build primer products work great.
Note that any remaining cracks trend to stand out with high gloss top coats.

 

[Russell Clifton]

Epoxy would be just fine. If you wanted to do a little research on fiberglass work, check out this channel on Youtube;

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0kDqq-pSzdqFUk3oTaHBuA