: Thanks Brian. You did a nice job on that one. The boat in question
: is only a couple of years old, and has nothing like that amount
: of surface defect. It has a few paddle and gear scratches, so
: I'll be spot-sanding those and then buffing the whole thing.
: It's her first real kayak and it's pretty close to being
: perfect, so I don't blame her for wanting to it put back to
: perfect. I might do the same were I in her situation.

The only potential problem is that if the gelcoat has faded, the color will be different where you spot-sand it. A better bet may be to just try to buff out the scratches without worrying about sanding the surface even.

Also, I forgot to mention that I do all of the sanding up through 800 grit by hand, rather than using an ROS.