gelcoat sanding

[keegster17]

guys applied some gelcoat on a few places on seadoo, the portion came out fine, but the black part of the seadoo really shows the sandpaper scrathes, I then compound and waxed it but now looks dull and scratches still show, i am very upset. I used 200 grit to start then 1000 grit, can I repair this to hide the scratches better? i will have to admit, the first go with the 1000 grit sandpaper I forgot to wet the paper to sand.

 

[Dr Honda]

Go one more step to 1500 sand paper. (WET !!) Once all the deep scratches are out... then you can use 3M Super Duty compound, and a rotary polisher. It will blend and be shiny. Since you have some deep scratches still.... you may need a new top-coat of gel to build it up.

 

[keegster17]

great thanks. yeah the surface is dull, and as mentioned scratches show. will the original black color come back? seems you need a lot of sandpaper as the gel-coat builds on the sandpaper. When I sanded I did not just sand the gel-coated area, it is impossible I hope that is fine, I mean not to say i went 10 inches away for gel-coated area. is it better circular motion or side to side. once again thanks for the help, I hope I can restore the color, I have spent a lot of hours waxing and cleaning this new/used seadoo. lol

 

[RFoster130]

IT should buff back out. When i fixed the gel on my boat i used way too much and had to use one of those drywall sanding blocks to knock it all down. Then I used 1000 grit then 1500 and finally 2000. All wet. With a small area doing it by hand is fine. Once it starts to looks good, then use a rubbing compound and a buffer.

 

[keegster17]

great thanks rfoster130. Hoping it works.

 

[RFoster130]

Also to keep it to a smaller area, i just used the blue painters type tape to section off the area i was working, made it a lot easier. Then when I got to the 1500 and 2000 i removed the tape and did a bigger area so it blended in and didnt look like a square block..lol

 

[keegster17]

sounds good. i have alot of sanding on the underside, i covered most scratches, not to smart of me, now I have all this sanding.