Thread: polishing gelcoat

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Hi,
Rather than paint my car right now I'd like to just polish the gel coat. It's nearly dead perfect now. It actually has been polished before I took delivery. A good share of it is just loss of gloss with time. There are a couple spots with 360-400 sand marks on the edges but not much.

I've tried a couple rubbing compounds but these simply don't touch the glass. Paint no problem. It looks like I need something more aggressive than use this stuff for the micro finish.

I have a nice varible speed polisher that works great.

How about it body guys?? What do I need.??

I think if you work any polish or wax (especially silicones) into your gelcoat, you're going to have a heck of a time painting it later on.

I doubt that the gelcoat will even last half as long as paint. The gloss will eventually die......but, Hey! flat finishes are popular. It's just that inbetween time, that it's partly shiny, that's awkward. :-)~

The gelcoat that comes on hot rod bodies usually isn't the same thickness as what comes on a boat hull, and is only intended to give you a smooth surface over which to do your priming and painting. I'm not even sure it is the same kind that gives a gloss finish, as on a boat.

If you are hellbent on trying it, you could wet sand with something like 600, then move onto some finer stuff, like 1200. After that you could compound it and see what you get. But I agree that anything you put on it may come back to bite you later on when you do decide to paint it. That stuff just hides and sneaks out later under your expensive paint job.

I've painted boats that I have dewaxed, sanded, then dewaxed more times, and have had the waxes come through later on.

Don

You are on the correct path to polish the gel coat. Sand rough area with no rougher than 600 and then progress on to 1500 to 2000 wet paper. Keep surface clean and on the wet side as you sand in straight line. Do not sand corners or edges as most folks will go through the gel coat pretty quick. Stop using the rougher paper like 600 as soon as possible as it will scratch surface more than you think if you are a newbie.
After you have sanded with the 1500 to 2000 paper to get the scratches out start polishing with a product like TR Industries #309 polishing compound with a foam pad and machine polish. This stage is not a (by hand) operation and keep cleaning surface and pad. Good luck and be patient. jeff c

Thanks for the tips guys. Looks like there is more to this than I thought. I'm going to go at it very carefully. Most of it is pretty shiny now but there are a few primered spots. I'guess about what you could do with about 1/2 a rattle can. Mostly edges and blends and door jams.