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Maineiac · **Posted:** 09 Feb 2019 14:28

I concluded awhile back that I have a dark blue gelcoat hull. I've awlgripped and imroned enough boats to tell the difference, and when I carefully scraped the bottom, there's blue gelcoat down below the waterline as well. It's badly faded. The true color shows topsideds near the stern very well. Amidships she's blanched. There are apparently two schools (not counting hitting it with gray primer and painting) of thought to restoring faded fiberglass. One is adamant that compounding, compounding, buffing and polishing is all you need to do. The other is wetsand, wetsand with decreasing grits beginning as low as 600 and going up to over 2000. Then compound and polish. The idea of the second school is that simply compounding and buffing won't last as long as re-invigorating the underlying gelcoat that hasn't been exposed to the elements, and it will take out stubborn scratches. Likewise, by wet sanding to gelcoat unaffected by the elements, repairing any deep gouges by matching the color will supposedly last longer before the color difference becomes visibly evident. I tried a 2' x 2' spot broadsides where it was faded the worst wetsanding with 600 grit. Haven't moved up in grit yet, but I still see stubborn scratches. It looks like it will work. Doesn't matter at the moment because the yard stuffed her in a shed with another boat 0.005 inches away. I haven't seen another T37 in flag blue gelcoat. What are your personal opinions on restoring gelcoat on dark colored boats?

NAM · **Joined:** 22 Jun 2008 10:54 **Posts:** 85

Here's a picture, albeit poor lighting, of a T37 in Flag Blue done with Interlux Perfection and roll & tip

NAM · **Joined:** 22 Jun 2008 10:54 **Posts:** 85

sorry, forgot the picture

Maineiac · **Posted:** 11 Feb 2019 10:06

Ooooo. Pretty, and tempting. Last boat I did with 2 part linear poly (same paint) was a 53' Navy Utility. Roll and tip. Came out great, and I swore I wouldn't do it again unless I absolutely had to. Here's the boat (love to peel that tape off): http://www.luxuryatch.com/1976-uniflite ... lity-boat/

Maineiac · **Posted:** 19 Feb 2019 13:07

Here's a better picture of tape peeling. I'd like to hang onto my gelcoat:

https://www.google.com/search?q=50%27+U ... ypDckooIM:

Tartan37.com

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