Inground pool - fiberglass stair rebuild/repaint?

[mikee30]

Hi,
About 5 years ago, my inground pool stairs cracked (vinyl pool from 1985 with fiberglass stairs) and required a complete repair. The company that fixed them sanded them down, put fiberglass sheets on each step and repainted them with a white gel coat. All was well, but the stairs are now having parts of the gel coat chip off and I am seeing hairline cracks in the paint (stairs don't seem to leak). The company that did them went bankrupt and I am now debating if I should redo them myself.

My plan was to remove any loose gel coat, fill in the voids with resin and then paint over the existing gel coat with another coat of gel coat (it seems gel coat to gel coat will bond).
Has anyone ever tried this?
Any suggestions on products I should be using for the job?

I have used resin in the past but not for underwater applications...
I have also never painted with gel coat - but it seems it can be reapplied with a brush over an existing gel coat?

Pool liner is currently out so I have a chance to work on it over the next couple of weeks.

Any comments / suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Check with folks that fix boats- they often redo fiberglass so may take on the job of your stairs.

Maddie

 

[sktn77a]

You should be able to do it yourself with the pool empty and dry. I fixed my own fiberglass kayaks back in the day - stinky and messy but very doable.

 

[Jayphil]

Not answering your question but would it be too late to look into under liner integrated stairs? Those really change the look of the pool and need to be done when changing the liner!