Hello, Bill,
Your ponderings are leading you where others have gone. The real truth is that gelcoat has microscopic bubbles in it, and if you use rubbing compound on it, it breaks through the tops of those bubbles. You fill it temporarily with wax, and as the wax wears over the course of time, they fill with dirt, some of which stains. If you are starting out with new gelcoat, I would never touch it with rubbing compound.
It depends on how bad the condition of the gelcoat is. "minaret" here on this forum in his thread "Nauticat 52 Refit", shows some re-gelcoating.
However, what SailorBoy 1 is doing is similar to how we used to use PoliGlo. We would do the acid wash (which removes rust stains) followed by a number of coats of the polymer stuff, and it looked good for about a year. We did it at haulout time, but it can be done in the
water if it is very still, water splashes aren't good for it.
Now that we have
paint (different boat) -- which is automotive LPU
paint -- it is holding its gloss way better than the
marine LPU we brushed on the
cabin at the same time, and all we do is let the rain wash it off, and the occasional spot wash as needed.
If you try a CF Custom
Google Search (about 6th down on the Search menu) on rubbing and waxing gelcoat, there have been many threads, and some of them have been interesting.
Ann
Ann