[bigshrimpin]

sloppy,
Here's a few tricks that helped me out when I had to fill some screw holes.

1. does the area that you are repairing have stress cracks in the gelcoat that spider out from the srew holes.

if yes = then you'll need to dig out the cracks too with a sharp edge (can opener), sand, acetone and fill with gelcoat otherwise they'll just show up again.

2. I used a drill with a beveled grinding bit to prep my holes. It actually makes the holes bigger but the extra surface area from the bevel gives the gelcoat a larger area to bond.

3. use masking tape to tape off the area around the repair . . . . . this allows you to minimize the clean up and focus your efforts only on the repair area.

4. When you apply gelcoat make sure to be extra generous, b/c your going to need sand the repaired area flush with existing surface.

5. Some gelcoats require PVA wax in order to fully cure otherwise they'll stay tacky . . .

6. if you use gelcoat and epoxy together make sure that the epoxy is sanded and acetoned before you apply gelcoat.