should i be concerned with these cracks in my top?

[Onefin]

Our top was completed in July 2014.
I was up on ladder planning solar panel placement and noticed cracks very similar to ones posted here.
They are on the top of the top, not the sides.
Top was done by SMB with their $700 raptor liner.
I will take photos next time with ladder and camera.
Whatever stuff SMB uses isn't as good as line-x or rhino liner applied professionally.
The SMB stuff is more like the DIY kits, except you pay 4x as much.
The bolts that are visible on too are showing rust now too, as expected for something that is 12 months old!

My guess is SMB will do the warranty repair, by smearing some mismatched goo in your cracks and call it good, so why bother unless you live super close?

[GrumpyBadger]

Originally Posted by Onefin

My guess is SMB will do the warranty repair, by smearing some mismatched goo in your cracks and call it good, so why bother unless you live super close?

That is my fear as well... which is not something I am interested in driving 4 days total there and back to bother with. Never liked the "color match" to begin with, and I sure don't want them making it worse by gooping crap on it.

So much for my expectations on a $100K+ rig. I guess I should not be so surprised. Look what builders do to houses that cost over $200K and more! Same thing, I guess, unfortunately.

I may just try to figure out what clear crap I can goop on it and hope it holds up until I either convince myself to bail on the thing, or keep it long enough to justify going up to CCV and having them re-do it. My faith in SMB is waning, I'm afraid (this and other nits I have).

[REF]

Unless your talking about installing a CCV top, Derek just paints his tops and I'm not sure he's set up to line-x, I would go to a line-x place to have them take a look, I think there's several down in Denver, there's one in Boulder I know of.
It's a bummer that this is happening on the tops, esp since the same thing was going on prior to SMB offering this coating as an option to avoid the cracks in the gel coated tops, do we know what material they use for sure? Any name brand or just a bulk generic? Either way it sounds like it's not a quality product and SMB should cover the cost of fixing it properly and switching to a name brand that stands behind their product, they should redo the entire top, not just fill in the cracks, but that prob won't happen. There is a product called dupli-color, available at automotive stores or on line, it's a textured spray liner available in many colors, you could try spraying over the cracks with that stuff, may be more flexible. I've used it on my trailer, does the trick for touch ups.

[GrumpyBadger]

I should give SMB the benefit of the doubt, I guess... I have not spoken directly with Peter yet... just the email exchange, but given that he said it could be done any day I can pop in, my assumption is that they have no intention of replacing or re-coating the entire top.

Hearing others say similar issues are occurring, you are right, REF... they should stop what they're using, or put better quality control into the process and re-do any of ours that are failing like this.

What I meant by going to Derek was that down the line sometime the top will get old and if I decided to replace it, I would likely look for an alternative (e.g. CCV based on reviews here on the forum). Not willing to do that yet - or even spend $$$$ to have it Line-X'd at less than 1 year old!!!!! (though I might do the rocker area... lots of stones dinging the paint!)

We'll see. I am going to try to get Peter to chat with me this week... I am considering paying for some re-work of my interior as well (I am not happy / satisfied with either of the two currently installed bed options which I designed / ordered, which really detracts from using the van).

[Viva]

Many boats are fiberglass, and most of those are gelcoated - although more and more are going straight to two-part coatings ("paint").

There is nothing I know of from that world that can be painted on over cracks and not have them telegraph back through at some point. The cracks usually have to be repaired, and if there was a specific stress cause, then that usually has to be diagnosed and repaired as well (not always; sometimes you can get something iike a star crack from dropping something on a certain point, and that doesn't have any underlying structural come back, but it still needs to be repaired before painting (or re-gelcoating). Some cracks "just happen" for various reasons inherent to the gelcoat, but they still usually get repaired before painting.

There are some thick paints that are used to basically stave off the reappearance of cracks for awhile, but that's usually either done by people who hope it will be a permanent fix (because the other way is too much work), or who accept that the cracks will likely come back but decide it's worth the less amount of work for some period of time of good looks. And sometimes older boats will get a super fine web of cracks all over, and if they are fine enough (you can't really even feel them), then paint can work, if it's a high-build primer, etc.

I don't mean to be a downer, but if I had a top with cracks (especially a newer one), I wouldn't just want to paint over them and have them come back.

One caveat is that Line-X type products don't tend to be used on boats, so I can't speak to them directly. Maybe they can be put on right over cracks and they don't ever "come back through"?

PS: Flexing fiberglass can cause cracks in gelcoat (gelcoat is not reinforced like the regular resin is with cloth). Boat designers and fabricators try very hard to keep fiberglass from flexing, both because it can cause cracks and because it can weaken the structure. It's best when kept rigid (without stress risers).

[daveb]

Mine was done by SMB in 08-09 and no issues yet.