Decided to Wet-Sand 2003 LTS

[Fainlts]

I decided to attempt to wet-sand my 2003 Launch LTS (Navy-blue). What a mistake....I spent five nights almost 8 hrs each wet sanding my boat. Started with hand sanding then small palm sander with 400 grit in some areas on to 600, 800 and 1000. I made almost no progress in removing the oxidation or restoring the color to match where the decals were. I found a local gel-coat guy with experience sanding w/ DA and was able to show me his work on a small area of my boat. He said" this was the hardest gel-coat he has ever seen". Pic#1 from July09 just after I purchased. Pic#2 is after decals removed. Pic#3 is with nearly 40hrs of sanding. Pic does not show but the decals are still visible. Gave up and hired an expert @ $600. It looks great now! Forgot to take final pictures before I put it back in storage at my local lake. Headed there this weekend and will post final pics...although I have not reinstall the decals as I'm still waiting on new custom decals out of Tx. Live and learn...."you can not beat a man at his own trade". update - Photo #4 & #5 are after all buffing and waxing. Just need to find time to install new decals. Update - completed the decals...now what will I do with my time...or yeh. RIDE!