gel coat repairs

[dombanks]

a year so ago someone gave me a really good method to sand/polish etc a gel coat repair. it was a sort of use this grade wet and then this grade paper dry and this type of polish type thing.

ive gone and lost it and ive no idea who it was so if anyone has a good method or can advise i'd really appriciate it.

Ive done the filling bit just need to make it shiney and blend in now.

thanks for the help

[adam1986]

I've been doing this recently with some good results.

I went for 180 grit sandpaper to remove any large lumps and bumps and then straight to 2000 grit wet and dry paper (although you could get away with coarser, I just happened to have this lying around). I used normal T-Cut and a soft cloth to buff it up and it worked brilliantly. My only recommendation is to do it all by hand, stay away from power tools like detail sanders, because it's all too easy to put some deep scratches in even with the 180G paper.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I'd be very wary of using that course a paper, also surprised you could get the 180 marks out so easily with a jump straight to 2000, you must have been working hard that day!

I've done quite a bit round the car now, still got the scuttle to go ready for the windscreen conversion.

If you can keep the amount of fresh gel coat to be taken off down to a minimum  you may get away with a 1200 grade wet and dry paper, used wet. If not, I normally drop down to an 800, still wet. Once done with the 1200, I normally jump to a 2000, again wet. (Was taught many moons ago to never skip more than one whole grade when wet sanding, don't know if that still holds true, but works for me   )

Again, I was taught to always use a sanding block, (you can get bendy foam jobs now, that follow the shape of the panel) and only go in straight parallel lines. That way, whenever you change paper grade, you can sand at 90 degrees to your previous work - makes it much easier to see when you've sanded out the last set of cutting marks.

Once you've finished with the 2000 grade, you can either go finer still with a 2500 or 3000, wet; which will reduce the polishing work, or jump straight in with the polish. There are some specialist gel coat polishes available from chandlers etc, but to be honest Farecla G3 seems to work really well - I know Jeff recommends it. (You can actually get relatively course sanding marks out with G3 and a machine polisher, but it's hard by hand,  hence going down to 2000 or so grit wet and dry.)

If you Google Farecla G3 there are some instruction guides and videos on their web site.

I've wet sanded out some deep scratches on my nose cone like this, followed by a 1200 wet sand of the whole nose for the light marks, polished up now, it's actually better than when the car was new!

[dombanks]

thanks guys. when you say wet do you mean wet with just water or do you use some sort of surfactant or solution?

also if i have gone a bit ott with the gelcoat (as i know i have in one place) whats the best way to get this material off... is it just use a harsh grade to bring it down or is it just a case of taking my time and not putting too much on on the other little marks?

thanks

again

Dom