Your gelcoat is porous
Once gelcoat gets porous, it won't take a shine by compounding (sort of like polishing a chalky sponge). The old way was to wet sand down to more solid gelcoat and then compound/wax. The final option is painting. An alternative is to use an acrylic "restorer" like new glass (this site chandlery) or our Island Girl System. We find that dissolving out the chalk (our cleanser/conditioner), sealing with Silkenseal and then using our Superwax will bring a shine back to porous gelcoat. On my boat the porosity was on the dark green stripe that faced the sun for 7 years in the tropics. Being wax based, you can remove our surface product with commercial grease and wax remover before painting but will need to wet sand of a good "key". If you use acrylics, then you use an ammonia- based stripper and (again) have to wet sand before painting. Hope this is of some help. Jim WIllis
