Supra Gel coat

[sailnaked6842]

I have a black 08 24ssv and anytime I try to sand it to smooth out a rock chip or a scratch the gelcoat sands through, turns white and won't buff out as if the boat was molded with white gel and then sprayed with black over it. It sucks if they really tried to save the tiny difference in money by using white gel and then a top color gelcoat later.

[wotan2525]

I have a black 08 24ssv and anytime I try to sand it to smooth out a rock chip or a scratch the gelcoat sands through, turns white and won't buff out as if the boat was molded with white gel and then sprayed with black over it. It sucks if they really tried to save the tiny difference in money by using white gel and then a top color gelcoat later.

That really doesn't sound right. I've never heard of Supra painting a boat at the factory. You sure it wasn't repaired and/or painted by someone before you?

[kennyk69]

What you describe does suck, but seems odd. I have an 09 24SSV with a black hull and have buffed out dock rash with excellent success.

[MJHKnox]

That really doesn't sound right. I've never heard of Supra painting a boat at the factory. You sure it wasn't repaired and/or painted by someone before you?

I agree. Is it like that all over the boat?

[daniel.j.grossheim]

From my understanding the gel coat is not that thick, maybe you have sanded/buffed through it and are getting to the fiberglass =/


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[docdrs]

lets see some pics

[sailnaked6842]

Hey Doc, here's some pictures. It's 20170314_185538[1].jpg 20170306_183916[1].jpg 20170306_183901[1].jpg

It's pretty frustrating since the more you sand the more white it brings to the surface and even after buffing it stays white. Some of the stuff it's hard to get a picture of since it doesn't like to zoom into the boat if it's not sanded. In the beginning, when I first saw these spots, I would dremel out the white and fill in with black spectrum gelcoat, which I'd sand down and then get a white ring around the repair. I'm not sure if there's more pictures lying around but I'll try to find some. This is pretty small stuff but more will probably pop up soon since I sprayed about 3 oz's of gel on to get something I can sand flat and try to blend in, hopefully without sanding through the black again.

Also the first picture shows a spot that used to be about an inch long and quarter of an inch thick that I was working on covering with gel, second photo shows the large area that I'm currently working on that went through in a spot and the third photo shows it buffed, but I don't think I went beyond 600 grit which was to see if I was going through.

Also it doesn't appear to be painted since the Spectrum gel matches pretty well?

[Wulphie]

To me it looks like you are not using a fine enough sand paper before you switch to compound and polish. I usually work my way up to 2,000 grit before I switch to a compound/polish.

That is how the black gel looks on my Supra after the first pass of wetsanding

[wotan2525]

I agree. I think you're getting too aggressive with the paper and not working your way up. Start with 600 or 800 and keep bumping up to at least 1500 before you switch to compound. The black will turn blacker and richer with each step. I can guarantee that you're not sanding through the gel coat. And you're making things worse by applying more gel to these areas at this point.

[sailnaked6842]

I finally found the pictures that do a better job of showing the white streaks I was talking about. Before I finish I always sand up to 2000 grit before buffing as you guys seem to understand why, but just to check progress at 600 I'll buff it just to make sure everythings coming out evenly. As you can see in the pictures some of it just ends up horribly white and I have no idea what's causing this.
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