Radar Arch repair 342

John41

Need some advice: my radar arch on my 2004 342 has cracks on it and lots of chipping. I’m getting a price of 2200+ 500 for materials to fix it. This price doesn’t include taking it down and putting back up. Does this sound like a lot of money? Is it even worth all the trouble and money?

YYZRC

I was quoted $1500 to repair a crack in the arch on my old 330 and over $5000 to completely refinish it so this sounds very reasonable to me. 

JoeStang

Yikes, that sounds painful. For that kind of money I might be tempted to sand it down myself and wrap it in vinyl. I know alot of people have had issues with stress cracks and freezing water issues with teh arch, so make sure it doesnt happen again in the future whatever you do.

davidbrooks

Take it.  If you search on here you will find several that have the same issue.  Cracking gel coat at the base of the arch.  Looks like it is swelling on the inside?  You can check out my post here. I started the repair over the winter and then had to stop to let it warm up before i did any gel coat.  Some here have fixed theirs with just paint but i was trying to get it where i could buff it and wax it.  I can tell you from personal experience that you will spend $450+ in materials.  A qt of gel coat alone is $150.  The extra $2200 is for the experience to get it done right.  It is a lot of hand sanding, multiple coats etc...  There really isn't anything structurally wrong with the radar arches.  There was just a time when they didn't clean the aluminum properly before they primed it.  This caused a little oxidation under the gel coat which over time separated it from the metal.  I tried to spray the gelcoat and that failed.  You need much bigger compressor than i have.  So i am painting it on and then sanding it smooth.  Technically you dont have to remove the arch to get this done but you will have a lot to clean up.

aero3113

My arch on my ‘08 330 is painted aluminum, no gel coat. I was able to get mine to where I was 98% happy with the results. Here’s a thread that I posted the results to.

https://rinkerboats.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/11321/330-radar-arch-repair/p1

Black_Diamond

The canvas track was installed with SS screws…into AL…so you will get corrosion and blisters from that.  My 342 was gelcoat skimmed then painted.  The price you got was decent.  It could be blasted and refinished in-place, just be a hella mess.  

captkevin

Can't you just buy some gelcoat & fill the scratches? Might not be perfect but save some $$. Post up some pictures if you have.

YYZRC

You can grind out the blistering/cracking areas, spray with self etching primer for aluminum, fill with bondo and then prime and paint. That was what was recommended to me by SEI and is essentially what @aero3113 and I did to fix issues. 

davidbrooks

You can def do a lot of the work yourself and anywhere it is cracking or pushing out you have to get down to bare metal. If just hairline cracks that is a different story. It would help if you posted some pics to see what you have going on.

John41

Thank you everyone for your input. I will take some pictures and post them to show the damage.