Removing Stripes

[David Alves]

Does anyone know the best way to get the gel coat to look like the rest of the boat once the stripes have been removed?

 

[Steve Dion]

Wait!

David:If you wait long enough the lines will fade and you will never know that they were there. Being that you are probably on the hard now, you may want to just leave them alone until spring time and the UV will bleach them out.I used Island Girl on mine and it helped a lot. You can also use wet/dry sanding to smooth them out too. What I found is that there are ridges where the stripes where. These do not just disappear. The yellow cast will bleach out but the ridges remained. I had no appetite for the wet/dry sanding.

 

[Bob Howie]

No real way

What you are looking at -- and I'm assuming the gel coat beneath the stripes is "brighter" than the surrounding gel coat -- is what the original gel coat probably looked like when the hull popped out of the mold. The difference in color is the work of UV on the "exposed" gel coat. Steve is right that it will blend out over time -- considerable time. Other than repainting the hull or replacing the stripes, that's what you are stuck with. You might consider a boot top (painted stripe) the width of the old stripes.

 

[Ray Bowles]

Dave, When I removed the lettering etc. on my

95 H26 last fall I had the same "shadow" problem. I let it sit all winter to equalize as best it could and then applied the "McGuires" 3 step fiberglass restoring system. (I know the name is wrong, I'm just not willing to walk thru the snowstorm currently raging outside to get the can).The results were very good but not totally perfect.I would bet there are many systems such as Island Girl etc. that will work. The key I think is in letting the sun work on the problem as long as possible.RayS/V Speedy

 

[fred miller]

Faking the Sun

I had the same problem. But being totally compulive about my 35.5 I was not going to wait for the Sun to do its thing. Some folks at a Maaco car painting place gave me a bit of automotive finish compound, which took off a good deal of the yellowing. I dewaxed further with MEK. Be careful its brutal stuff and very flammable and you must thoroughly neutralize afterwards.The shadow was still there some, so I faked my own UV treatment. Yes a sunlamp and some lemon juice. It worked after a couple of treatments.Fred S/V M Squared