Wet Sanding gel coat

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concorde mike

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I am reconsidering having my hull painted after getting quotes that are out of my budget this year. Any comments on wet sanding gel coat to restore some shine would be appreciated. The boat is a 1978 model and has very thick gel coat that has only been waxed before but neglect over the past few years has caused quite a bit of oxidation. The color is white
 
before you wet sand try to use superduty buffing compound and a good buffer.

my boat was in real bad shape...a day of buffing and she looks very close to brand new.
 
I'd tend to take anything they said with a big grain of salt after seeing they recommend using "steel wool" on a boat.
 
Yeah, they lost me with the steel wool too . I think I will do a test spot with an aggressive compound this weekend and see how it goes. I thought the gel coat restoration part had some merit though. I'm only trying to buy a season or two to save my pennies for a new awlgrip job. I am doing topsides this year just couldn't swing the whole job. Very $$$! Thanks to all for all the great input.
 
I wet sanded the top deck of my 1986 Tiara with great results. It was very badly faded and oxidized before I started. I started with 1000 grit and then went to 2000. After that I hit it with the wheel and a heavy compound and then wax. There is not a lot of talk on this site about wet-sanding but it is the only way to go.
 
Mike:

There are very few boats out there, both past and present, that have the quality of gel-coat that you have on your Concorde.

Therefore, you should try the compound, buffing, and waxing route before you try anything else.

I think that you'll be pleased with the results, and will probably never need to resort to wet-sanding or using the AWLgrip finish.
 
I'm doing mine right now. I started out with finer paper (1500) in an offending area and buffed and polished but still had some "deadness" to the gel coat. I ended up goin to 1000 grit all over, working my way up. 1000, 1500, rubbing compound, finesse it and finally wax. The key is to work a small section and check your progress by going through the whole process all the way up to fine polishing, you want the area to have a waxed gloss look before you actually wax it. It is my understanding if the gelcoat ever gives you a sign of becoming transparent you've gone too far.
 
Thank you all for your comments. I compounded an area this weekend with a 3M compound and it came out very nicely. I think I can get away with the compound/wax method after all.
 
SR360aft.. You doing the 1000 grit by hand right ? So just go by shine ? Do it until it comke to life, then compound and wax.

The PO did me the favor of having the hull done, so the major work is done, I just need to do my top sides
 
dm. I did all of the sanding with air powered random orbital (except the contours) and the compound with a rotary buffer. Haven't waxed it yet, waiting for my new striping to arrive. The finish has been brought back to original condition since there is no trace of where the 21 year old striping was originally.
 
I went by shine and feel. Once you get past the oxidized "layer" the gelcoat feels much harder
 
I think I'd try Aurora's "Boat Scrub" first. I've had some great results with that. Flitz can also be used, but it's not quite as strong as Boat Scrub. Anything that works before sanding is good. Wet sanding is an art.

However, here's I post I saw earlier this year from a member who did a really nice job wet sanding his boat: http://www.boatered.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=97622&SearchTerms=wet,sand
 
Not exactly sure of how to post picturs. Hope this works. It was quite difficult to capture a pic where the shine shows. These are before applyin wax
5029398_4_2076.jpg

5029398_1_93774.jpg
 
Stripes and window tinting scheduled for tomorrow, hoping for a Saturday pm splash [:-thumbu]
 
SR360Aft - WOW ! That looks great ! It looks freaking new ! The guy did a nice job on the other link but I dont think he got the shine you got, plus I can still see the "32" after he was done.. Must not have gone far enough. I bet he wet sanded by hand.
 
Splashed this morning. Didn't bring the camera but after the new stripes and salon window tint the boat looks great.
 
quote:
Originally posted by concorde mike

Thank you all for your comments. I compounded an area this weekend with a 3M compound and it came out very nicely. I think I can get away with the compound/wax method after all.
Click to expand...


If you used a fairly coarse compound the first time around and got a good result, do it again with a very fine compound to really get the shine up. Wax it when you are done with a good synthetic such as Flagship.
 
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