Buff or Paint?
 

When do you think you should paint the gel coat a V20 vs. buffing it?

try and save the gel-coat finish . paint is only 2-5 mills thick and gel-coat can be as high as 15-20 mills. now you could do a lot of sanding on that surface but be careful around edges. providing you are not repairing any chips or scratched areas you should be able to save your gel-coat. start out with 400 or 600 wet sand paper. then go to 1500 and finish with 3000. then compound and polish.
ok here is the deal buy a 3m or finesse kit a little costly but well worth it!!!!!!!!!!!! you get the 1500 and 3000 on a Velcro pad along with the proper compound and polish. yes you need a 6 inch orbital sander. read and follow instructions from kit and you will be happy to see what you did.
when you start sanding only go till the surface is clean and smooth. stains or very light scratches could be removed safely. then use the polishing kit available from a auto body paint supply store. good luck take your time experiment on a small area first so you get the hang of it then go from there.:nice:

Mine is not that bad just has lost it shine, it is a 1989 v20 sport.
I have a HF 7'' polisher so I though to give that a try but not sure what the best suff to use with it.
Has any one use a product called "shine on" they say you won't need to buff if this product is used.

I have a friend that just bought a boat with black gel coat, the thing was almost white!! To coats of a coarse compound and a buffer then 3 coats wax and that thing looks like brand new!
NO TO PAINT when ever possible!!

Not sure what product "Shine on" is but any product where you supposedly wipe on and wipe off aint gonna do it....

Please use this product, buy good variable speed buffing machine from Harbor Freight
Use the 1000 grit first and follow with the 2000 you can expect to see results beyond your expectations.
During my restoration I was determined not to wet sand the Gel coat, I did not here is what the results were, it remove the orange peel and came out excellent.
I personally did a lot of reading and found this product I will recommend no other.

Here is the web site http://www.aqua-buff.com/

Here is a before and after shot using this product ...

how much aqua buff did you use?
is 16oz enough to do a v20 sport?

Another question is the floor is grey in my sport 20 would that be paint or gel coat? I have some patching to do so I didn't know if it would be better to just paint after my repair work.

Yes it should be enough..I use both 1000 & 2000...

NYMACK's gelcoat looks great, I saw it in person.