I have a 93 Fountian 27 that has the brown & gold painted on graphics. We are planing on a new int & new graphics. I'm planig on trying to sand the old ones off and sand and buff the hole boat, has anyone tryed this with any success ? Thanks

its kind of a crap shoot to do that. If you do decide to give it a go you have maybe a 50/50 shot at any success so be prepared to paint if necassary. Many times the gel under the graphics will fade at a different rate then open gel.

A buddy sanded his off. If you look close you can still see the old outline. His new graphics covered most of the old, so only noticeable where there was no overlap.

I'm going to give it try the fading is my concern. was wondering how much sanding can the white gelcoat take before going through, and I am preparid to paint if I have to. any input on vinyl graphics or should I have them painted on ?

Thanks

I did some research and found that "easy off heavy duty" (oven cleaner yellow can) would taek off paint and not mess up the gel coat. I bought it and removed an old painted name on my boat and it worked like a charm. I used a plastic scraper as well and it came up super easy and looks great!

that only works on hand brushed type paints(one shot)..if sprayed in imron or something simular sanding/painting or covering(wrap) about the only options that work well...

We gave it a try last week the graphics sanded of well and we used several different grits and a lot of buffing the jel under the graphics looks great but after hours of work the the unpainted jel was just to yellow, to much difference to use, so are local painter was happy to hear that, LOL and its off to the paint shop.

How did you protect the surrounding gel coat and any pointers for not sanding too deep? I've been thinking of this but also afraid the gel under the paint will be too white.

To protect the surrounding areas I masked them with duck tape. The cheaper stuff works better because it comes back off the easiest .

What grit paper do you use. Any pointers? I have stripes I want to change.