Older Sunfish with stickers to remove

This has probably been covered before, but I'm working on cleaning up our 2nd Sunfish, and the person I bought it from put stickers over almost ALL of the hull (although fortunately none topsides) They've been there quite a while and I can't get rid of the outline (of the stickers)
I've bleached it, and the rest of the hull looks pretty good, but you can still clearly see where the stickers were..... any help would be greatly appreciated.....
 
The outline is caused by the UV exposure of the gelcoat around the sticker, actually it's more the lack of UV exposure under the decal. Anyway the only way I know of is to wetsand and buff the gelcoat.

terra firma is for farmers
jeff
 
Andy,

Check the SF Class home page, Tips and Tricks, Gel Coat Repair. Wet sanding instructions are there starting about step 9. Depending on the depth of the UV penatration, I would start with 800 or finer at first, you cn always go coarser if that grit does not work (try a small, out of the way area first). Wal-Mart automotive has five packs of 3M Wet/Dry paper (4" x 11" +/-) up to 2000 grit, that fit in a sanding block. Take your time hand sanding (no power) with a sanding block, plenty of water, and work your way up through the grits and your boat will shine.
 
Andy,

I would use wetsand paper in the range of 800 to 1200 grit. Soak it in water for a while until the paper softens (a few hours). Paint paddles make great sanding blocks, you can break them easily to get any size you want and they conform to curves without distortion. 400 grit is really pretty aggressive and you'll have to sand with finer grits before you're done anyway. Buffing can be difficult, to get a really great shine you need to turn a buffing pad at pretty high speed. Take it slow and it will come out great.

terra firma is for farmers
jeff
 

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