Gel coat shine question

I was thinking about buffing my gel coat and just leaving it like that. How nice of a shine can you create? This is a Gulf car so it's light blue. I say that because I know some colors like black would be hard to do. Since the blue is such a light color could you get a similar shine to a clear coat paint job?
 
Yes you can Dean.
It depends upon how much care you can give the mold lines.
Alex polished his SL-C to a very high standard.
 

Randy V

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I thought your first RCR (GT40) was just buffed GelCoat... No?

You can make GelCoat shine as nice as paint with the proper surface prep and coating (wax / Polymer)... There is a product called Gel Gloss that looks pretty nice.
 
No, my other cars were painted. Although the gel coat was the same color, the body work on the 40 would never allow you to run in just gel coat and the SLC was painted in Detroit before I took over the project. This new GTR is rumored to have impeccable glass work and if that is the case, then I am going to polish and stripe. I guess you really don't have much to loose. Just man hours sanding and polishing.

I'll look into the Gel Gloss stuff but I think you would want to wet sand with at least 1000 grit to get that smooth finish. I would certainly be interested in the proper process.
 

Randy V

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Treat it as though you'd treat paint when cutting and buffing.. The only difference is that there will be air bubbles / pin-holes in the GelCoat that you won't be able to do anything about..
All the normal warnings about Gel Gloss - use in inconspicuous spot first.. Made an older bath tub of ours shine like factory new! Many people swear by it for the nose caps on their fifth wheel trailers and motorhomes..
 
If it is similar to a boat finish, as with cars we like to make our boats fast. I use a polish like Mclube Hullkote. It is citrus based, not petroleum, and uses ptfe. Stuff is nothing but slick, and fast! Wally sells cheaper stuff with ptfe in the boating dept. which is similar. Easy to work with. Wax is slow below the waterline.
 
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