Winter Project wetsand the supreme starting early

I want to thank everyone that helped with the mechanical side of the boat. I got it running great with no over heating. Now that I have the boat at my house in the garage I decided to start on what was going to be my winter project a little early.

I planned on wet sanding last year but with the boat being at my brothers it was hard to get to make it a consistent project. I also stopped at a local boat house and showed some pics. The guy told me to use my 3M heavy duty and to really work it. And it should be good. So that's what I did I did one side of the boat and realized there was a ton of specs being left in the finish.




Well this thing is like a chalk board. I knew it was going to need some serious attention. WHen I got the boat the decals had been removed so there is 2 drastic shades of blue. I have read probably every write up on here on wet sanding. Decided that I'm going to need to start with 320, 600, 800, 1200 then compound and then on, due to the condition.

My question is.... When do you know When to move to the next grit? should I keep going with 320 until it's all the same color? Or does it even out in the process. On the opposite side after compounding you can still see a faint line in areas. But the logo is still raised over the exposed part. WHen it's wet it shows no change, but when dry shows some. I just don't want to rub with the 320 too much and go to deep. I assume I want to go until the 2 sections are level if I ever want to put on more decals.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Is there a way to get out the compound specs in the above pic too?

Here are some more pics.


Logo Wet


Logo Wet


Logo dry after some 320

its a solid color. the metal flaking is actually the compound in the gel coat specs. I assumed i would need to refinish or something but thought it was worth the winter if i can salvage.

I'm doing the wet sanding by hand. was contemplating using a block. I had a bucket of water and would dunk the paper to clean and wet as needed. I just didn't know if I should sand to get a color match or if it was something that would even out farther down the road after compounding and stuff.

I use a dish soap bottle to continously feed water while sanding. ( a little soap in the water helps too).    When the area is fully sanded, the paper will drag more, so you can tell when it's time to move on.    Also, if you wipe it with a rubber squegee, you can easily see the scratch pattern, you want it to be even.

You can disagree with me all you want Greg, it's good to have you back

It's weird that the area under the decals is lighter and I'm assuming the original gel color than the area exposed to the light and weather. Doesn't blue gel usually get lighter over time where exposed to the weather, like most other colors?

Don't need to just spend 3 months sanding and polishing my BFN earlier this year. Think I know how colors change when exposed to sunlight, and enamel paint at this point. Darker colors tend to fade, unless they are being contaminated with foreign matter.

Don't think I've ever seen the area under a decal being lighter than the exposed area of the hull, whether its in gel, or paint.

Gary S wrote: You can disagree with me all you want Greg, it's good to have you back

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