: I have worked with gel coat for 10 years or so and can tell you
: that 2000 grit to start wont work. When doing repairs on kayaks
: and sanding pt surface scratches I start with 800 grit and work
: up to 1500. Buffing at that point usually works out well.

: Dave g

I have never worked with gelcoat, but I can tell you from automotive finishes, commercial marine finishes, and restoring plastics, I am quite lazy. If the scratch/defect is deep at all I would prefer to do a few strokes with 400 or 600 than scrub away with 800 and not be sure I'm making headway. Also, as you say, I stop at 1500, because the compound I use combined with a wool pad makes short work of it, so 2000 is just unnecessary work.

My main concern in posting this is whether gelcoat is too soft or too thin to wet sand aggressively.

m