QUOTE(brant @ Feb 20 2014, 01:40 PM)
I've sanded through the gel coat
you will get spider cracks every 6 months if you do
the only way I was able to put a stop to that on mine was to take it to a fiberglass manufacturer and have them re gel coat it
so be careful... sand lightly..
Glad you brought this up. I mentioned this before, but if you do go to sand it down and especially if you go through the gel coat, you should still expect to skim coat the top with filler and re-sand. Once the gel coat is compromised, the resins/gases still trapped (yes, even after 40 years) inside the fiberglass will want to escape through the paint. As Brant mentioned, it's either lay down another layer of gel coat or skim coat with high quality filler.