Re: Bottom paint removal to original gel coat finish
Ayuh,.... Welcome Aboard,.... Look into Soda Blastin',....
It's harsh enough to remove the paint, yet soft enough to leave the gelcoat,....
I guess as long as the dude behind the hose is careful and fairly skilled with his hose. But Ive had to repair bottoms where they blasted holes in the gel all the way to the glass.
If you can scrape most of it off..then vacuum sand with 100ish grit just until you see the sanding scratches from the prep for the paint ( assuming it had any sanding done in the first place )..then start sanding with 320 grit just until 50% of them supposed prep scratches are gone..then a quick 400 grit till 90% is gone..then 600 til gone..then a quicky 1k grit all over..then finally an elbow burning slingfest of rubbing compound and polish should get you golden. Oh..and this is assuming that they didnt supposedly sand most if not all of the gel off in spots
. Yea..piece of cake..like 3rd generation fruit cake.
I did One in my life..turned out fabulous. However I was lucky enough not to burn through anywhere. Its a crap shoot really. Basically you want to remove the scratches they put in there for the bottom paint..and no more. Your using the stained scratches as your 'guide coat' for sanding..just enough sanding to take them out..then buff it. Soda blasting will take too much off to make it safe to sand/buff. If there is enough gel on there then yea..it could work. It will take a bit more to sand out the blasting profile..but you wont have to remove that nasty Foul paint.
Good luck and let us know what happens
