Removing Gel Coat scratches

[agouge888]

Hey guys, a friend if mine has an '08 SANTE 210 with blue hull. We were looking at it the other day and there are some small to medium scratches in the gel coat from running over few sticks in the water this past year. What's his best choice for getting rid of these? Any ideas?

Thanks,

Andrew
agouge888

[Mamigacz]

If the scratches are not competely thru gelcoat and into the fiberglass, I would try Meguires diamond cut. I like this compound because it starts out agressive and breakes down into a glazing compound. You need to use a buffing wheel with this product. I have never needed to come back with multiple compound grades to get wheel swirls out.

If you find that the diamound cut alone is not getting the scratches out, I would try 1500 grit wet sanding paper and follow up with the diamound cut until the wet sanding scratches are gone. You have to be careful not to take too much getcoat off. Test it on a couple scratches and see what it takes to remove them.

[cwindingland]

Depending on what you consider 'medium' type scratches, you may want to consider a more agressive grit. You can easily go down to 600 or 800 to remove the gel a bit faster. Just remember where you start, you will have to come back up through the grits to probably 1200-1500 before buffing. Most buffing compound can take over around the 1000-1200 point. However, polished scratches are still noticable so be diligent in working back up through the grades. If this is your first go at wet-sanding gelcoat, it might be good to know your arm would likely fall off before you sand through to the fiberglass with 1500 grit

[Marko1956]

How about gel coat fading? Will a buffer/polisher restore the color?