is there really that much difference? I bought a 22 yr old boat, and the more bottom paint and decals i peeled off, the more different shades of sunned out white i found. I hit the bottom paint with oven cleaner, then finished the job with sand paper... as i was sanding the bottom paint areas, i noticed it was doing the Hull justice too, so i kept going....

next i plan to buff, then wet sand, then buff again, polish, wax...

ive wet sanded many times before, but never just straight up sanded. the straight sanding cleaned the hull up nice... anything i need to do next, or anything i did detremental?

Gel doesn't sand like paint, it doesn't seem to like the Imperial dry sandpaper. You can use those things wet though, i've had better luck with either Mirkas Abralon or 3M's Trizak for cleaning up old gel for buffing.

for whatever reason, mild dry sanding made the hull look better, i guess the real test will be how it shines with compound, polish and wax

Paper lasts much longer wet to.