I removed old name stickers off the hull. It left a gray stain behind. What is the best way to remove the stains? I?m sure polishing them out but what is the best stuff to use? Rubbing compound? What kind? Thank you in advance for the help.
If this is an old boat, that grey stain may be the original color of the gel coat. Its normal to have the area under the sticker different in color than the surrounding surface, the surrounding surface fades while the area under the sticker is protected.
If this is an old boat, that grey stain may be the original color of the gel coat. Its normal to have the area under the sticker different in color than the surrounding surface, the surrounding surface fades while the area under the sticker is protected.
About the only thing you can do is sand and buff the rest of the boat, this will remove the discolored surface and hopefully get down to the original color.
If the color and finish on the rest of the boat still looks good aside from the fade, then other option would be to get new stickers made that will cover the same area as the old ones.
Wet sanding is not too harsh it is just a lot of work. The gelcoat on a boat is about 10 times as thick as paint. That said I had an old boat that had pin stripes on the hull when I got it. I wet sanded the entire hull then compounded and buffed. She looked great but I never got down to the original color, ended up just putting new pin stripes to cover the discoloration.
Good to know, I am not very good at stuff like that.
I am happy that my boat appears to be the same color all over, it's 15 years old and all white, I go blind in there when I am working on the deck in the sun.
