Wet Sanding & Buffing?
 

In another post somebody said something about wet sanding and buffing to remove yellow stains on gellcoat. I have lightly sanded a small spot on my boat and the yellow comes right off.
Does this wet sand and buff method actually work? Will it harm the gellcoat? also will it still shine after you sand it and buff it?

wet sanding prevent the sandpaper from scratching the gelcote and leaves it nice and smooth.

I woudl recommend compounding after you wetsand. YOU MUST WAX after you sand or compound.

absolutely
 

I have seen boat repair shops do this to the whole boat to bring back the finish. The gel is the same all through it's thickness (so long as you are careful not to go through), so I don't think it has any impact other than giving you a renewed surface.

Wet sanding does scratch the gel coat. The point of wet sanding is to use a very fine sandpaper (800 or 1000 grit paper) to level the surface of the gelcoat around the scratch down so the scratch is gone. In your case you are removing the gelcoat that is yellow. Once the sanding is complete the surface is covered with tiny scratches from the paper. The buffing process polishes the surface by removing the tiny scratchs that remain. Once buffed there will be swirl scratches. Those are from the buffing compound. Use a polish to remove those. You will end up with a mirror like finish.

Rick

I had a few spots on mine that sanded and buffed out well. I did though start with 1000 grit and then finish with 1500 and then 2000. reduces the amount of buffing needed.

Craig