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restoring faded Gel Coat

Printed From: CorrectCraftFan.com
Category: Repairs and Maintenance
Forum Name: Boat Maintenance
Forum Discription: Discuss maintenance of your Correct Craft
URL: http://www.CorrectCraftFan.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=27935
Printed Date: November-18-2024 at 5:29pm


Topic: restoring faded Gel Coat
Posted By: wsavini
Subject: restoring faded Gel Coat
Date Posted: September-27-2012 at 2:22am
Im looking for some advice on the best way to restore faded Gel Coat on my project boat. 1986 SN, Ive peeled the decals off and now need to try to restore its luster. Wet sand? or some product out there that is proven? Thanks, Wayne




Replies:
Posted By: mark c
Date Posted: September-27-2012 at 9:14am
Wetsand, depending on the condition start at 400 grit, then 800, 1200, 1500, then 2000 on a DA sander. Then polishing compound, and finally wax. Reinstall the decals before waxing. Go easy around any of the lifting strakes and sharp edges on the hull you don;t want to cut thru the gel on the shart edges.


Posted By: wsavini
Date Posted: September-27-2012 at 11:34am
will that bring back the luster or will it be dull when finished? I tried to put a picture but it wont let me copy and paste.


Posted By: 8122pbrainard
Date Posted: September-27-2012 at 12:10pm
Originally posted by wsavini wsavini wrote:

will that bring back the luster or will it be dull when finished? I tried to put a picture but it wont let me copy and paste.

Wayne,
It will absolutely bring the boat back to the original luster and in fact, maybe even better than the factory. There are some great threads on site covering the process. Try using the search feature as it's a fantastic tool.

As far as picture posting goes, there are also some great threads on it. Moat including myself use a photo hosting site like photobucket.com. It's pretty easy especially since I have my profile on photobucket set up to automatically resize any upload to 800 X 600. Then once uploaded, it's simply a copy of the IMG and a paste on the site.

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/diaries/details.asp?ID=1622" rel="nofollow -

54 Atom

/diaries/details.asp?ID=2179" rel="nofollow - 77 Tique

64 X55 Dunphy

Keep it original, Pete
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Posted By: Gary S
Date Posted: September-27-2012 at 12:19pm
I always like to show these 2 pictures to show what
a good cleaning and polishing will do. It's alot
of work and their are no shortcuts.





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http://www.correctcraftfan.com/diaries/details.asp?ID=1711&sort=&pagenum=1&yrstart=1966&yrend=1970" rel="nofollow - 69 Mustang HM SS
95 Nautique Super Sport


Posted By: wsavini
Date Posted: September-27-2012 at 1:08pm
Wow, that is amazing. What year is that ?


Posted By: TRBenj
Date Posted: September-27-2012 at 1:09pm
There are a few good threads with excellent info in the "Common Questions" section. I would start your search there. There are too many details to list every time another person asks this question.

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Posted By: 62 wood
Date Posted: September-27-2012 at 1:14pm
Before you put any sandpaper to it, try buffing compound with a power buffer first. Depending on condition, the compound may do wonders by itself.

I just compounded my 86 last weekend. Somebody had vandalized it with green spray paint.




before....




after compounding only.....



Turned out nice...


If you do wet sand. START with the finest first 1500, 1200, 1,000, etc. , until you find the grit that works best. You may only need to go to 1,000. If you start at 400, you will need to resand thru the finer grits to remove the previous sandpaper scratches.

BTW, if you have scrapes,etc, you can start with coarser paper in those areas only.

.

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http://www.correctcraftfan.com/diaries/details.asp?ID=1117&sort=&pagenum=6" rel="nofollow - 64 American Skier

62 Classic..
73 Ski Nautique


Posted By: wsavini
Date Posted: September-27-2012 at 9:44pm
ok guys good advice, thank you



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