I recently wet sanded off hand painted lettering on my transom, but the paint discolored the gel coat leaving it slightly yellow. It’s also slightly raised where the letters were. What’s the best solution to get rid of the color? I don’t mind that it’s raised a bit.
Removing lettering stain
- Thread starter randerson5726
- Start date
Pick a small spot in a letter and keep sanding to see how deep the color penetration is. Hopefully it is just to the raised portion of the lettering. One alternative would be to paint the transom in a darker color.
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 21,220
This is true. But if that is the case you will need to prep the transom. Sanding to remove albtraces of the previous lettering. Then priming the area with a dark primer. Again sanding smooth. Then painting. Of course once the transom is painted then the rest of the topsides hull will follow.
I'm going to try FSR and scotch brite first. Then I'll move on to more sanding. The gel coat is a bit thin in other spots on the transom so I'll have to be very careful. I would like to avoid painting, I'll probably just live with it if it comes down to that.
I wonder if it will fade away on its own from sun exposure over the course of a season or so. I’d get it as clear as possible without doing anything dramatic then see how it looks after a few months.
I was thinking the same, @Davidasailor26 - perhaps this is just 'shadowing' of the gelcoat like what we get under vinyl lettering, and it just fades over a few years.
Time and a rubbing compound like TotalBoat Total Buff.
www.totalboat.com
TotalBuff Boat Rubbing Compound - Boat Oxidation Remover
TotalBuff marine & boat rubbing compound removes heavy oxidation and wet sanding scratches from fiberglass gelcoat. Follow with our polish & wax.
www.totalboat.com
I was thinking time might also work. If you look closely, there are some spots where the paint had chipped off, these spots don’t have the strain. So it’s not permanent. The question is will it be 2-3 seasons or 10 seasons!
After wet sanding I used a fast cut compound, followed by a finer one and wax. The buffing didn’t remove the stain.
After wet sanding I used a fast cut compound, followed by a finer one and wax. The buffing didn’t remove the stain.
Did not claim that all the solutions have no negatives attached to them, because each and everyone of them do have costs and a labor factors which the owner will have to weigh on his options.
I used oven cleaner to remove the hand painted lettering on the hull. That was 23 years ago when we bought our boat. No residual problems with the gelcoat, worked great.
I tried FSR and on off, both didn't work. I then tried wet sanding but I started to burn through the gel coat, see the photo. Looks like the stain is almost all the way through the gel coat. I think the only option is to cover it up with paint. I'm not willing to paint it, so I guess we will see if it fades after a few seasons. Thanks for all the input.
I thought it looked like the gelcoat has been bleached out except where the letters were rather than a stain.
I think that’s right. Yesterday I took off an old compass, underneath the gelcoat had a yellowish tint, very similar to the color under the lettering. So I think most of the boat has been bleached out, but anything covered has retained it’s yellow tint. It’s interesting that the bleaching is almost all the way through the gel coat, I would have expected the wet sanding to reveal some yellow tint directly outside of the lettering.