I wet sanded a friends boat last year by hand and it turned out well, but I plan to sand my boat this year and I am interested in any tips, tricks or advice on wet standing using a DA sander. Is there anything special I need, or just a regular sander is ok? I really think my arms will thank me for using the DA.
Thanks for any help.

use a higher grit paper than you would use if you were doing it by hand. Make sure your DA pad uses the hook and loop style pads and not adhesive.

Make sure your DA is high quality with adjustable speeds so you can slow it down

Have fun

I have a good friend that is the head painter with the local Chevy dealership in town. He uses a special pneumatic jitterbug palm sander with a hose that you drop into a bucket of soapy water and it keeps the surface wet for you. It works perfect every time. You might want to look into one of those if you are doing your whole boat.

I do have one question, how do you keep the pad wet and do you just change it when it becomes full of gelcoat? When I did it by hand, I just dipped the pad in the bucket cleaned it off and went right back to sanding.

Any suggestions on a good DA sander?

Most water sanders use a small water line going from a hose connection etc., to the sander itself to keep it wet.

Just watch that air hose and/or water line that is going to the sander!

You can't let it "drag" along any surface of the boat while sanding, especially when you are doing the top side of the boat, or it will leave some pretty good scratches or marks.

Either way you do it, color sanding and buffing out a boat of any size is a good deal of work for sure!

I forgot to add that you might want to get ahold of GlassDave on OSO as he is for sure a total PRO when it comes to this, and he has also done tons of boats...

I have gotten some great tips from him!

Thanks for all the help so far guys!

Yeah, I was hoping Glassdave might chime in here sometime.

He might have gone to Miami!

Rumrunner, what kind of pad did you use?

The sander that Gimme Fuel is talking about is a Hutchins Waterbug. It has been around quite a while. The current technology is the hook and loop system. Make sure you use an interface pad.(goes between the DA pad and the sandpaper) Just use a hose turned down to a trickle to keep it wet.