Removing The Old Paint Job

Well for the past week, 1 hour here, and 1/2 hour there, I have been sanding the deck of my Sunfish trying to get rid of the previous owner's paint job. I have been using 600 grit wet/dry paper and it was pretty slow going. For the rest of the deck, I have been lightly sanding the gel coat with 2000 grit sandpaper. This has removed pretty much all of the old stains, and even small scratches in the gel coat.

The paint is finally gone, and now you can see where the damage was done. It looks like some acid or some chemical was spilled on the deck, and ate right through the gel coat. Rather than paint the whole deck again, I am going to coat this area with a gel coat repair kit. I have purchased a kit from our local sailing store, along with a yellow tint. You can see what looks like a chalky residue on the deck, this is just the small scratches created by sanding. Once the deck is buffed with compound and wax, it will look more mirror like.

This week I plan on adding an eye strap, to attach my Harken Carbo Ratchet block, and to install an inspection port.