Gel coat or paint

[optiguy]

OK, here is the bad news about old gelcoat. Gelcoat becomes a porus coating once it is sanded. No amount of sanding, buffing and waxing will make it stay shiny. Even if you wet sanded all the way up to 2000, it will be a waste of your time. Unfortunately you have reached the time for a new paint job . And don't let anyone try to convince you to regelcoat. That is another huge waste of time and money. A new gelcoat job will star getting chalkie in about 4 to 5 years. Paints like Imron or Awlgrip will stay shiny for 10 or more years.
Bill

[Rufridr069]

Thanks for the info. Paint it will be.

[abl1111]

I must disagree about the sanding of gelcoat. I have sanded many a boat's old worn gelcoat ( years ago too ) w/ a 800-1000 grit D/A then polished the sanded gelcoat w/ a 3M compound, then 3M Finess-It II, then a good coat of wax or two and the results are awesome - and have remained so.

A lot of people, especially boatyards, paint w/ awlgrip or imron because it is a lot less labor intensive overall. Awlgrip is a pain in the ass if it gets scratched - you can paint it by brush or spray it however, but you cannot patch it ( picture a nice scratch 4"x10" on the side of your boat - you have to paint the whole side to make it look right - no blending ) ... and Imron is good stuff, patchable - but must be sprayed and is not as durable as awlgrip.

Whereas, gelcoat, although more difficult to finish after sprayed, can be repaired easily and is more durable then the paints - i.e. my SeaCraft is a 1975 w/ original gelcoat - in the Fla sun it's whole life and it looks new !

It boils down to opinion, and mine is that I prefer to gelcoat than paint. After a lot of research, w/ me doing the labor - I like the flexability and durability of gelcoat. But, if I had to paint, I would use Imron for fixability.