I know I've read several guys on here have boats with clear coat peeling issues. I bought a 2000 520 Ranger at an auction and first tried to wet sand it with 800-1000-1200-1500 and finally 2000 paper then buff.....Didn't work well. I had my dealer rebuild my 225 outboard and asked him his ideas on removing a base coat clear completely then try to sand and buff. His solution....and it worked perfectly....was this:
1. you will need to remove all hardware , decals etc 1st off the boat. This will eat up and soften rubber if left on anytime.
2. Mix 8 oz of acetone with 8 oz. of MEK and add 1.6 oz of Zylene (10% by vol.). Mix in a plastic spray bottle.
3. Once all the hardware, decals are removed, spray a wet coat on the clear coat doing a small area around 12". you have to keep spraying a wet coat of this solution as it evaporates quickly. If you keep it wet you will start to see the clear coat begin to wrinkle up. Spray a little more and it will blister up where you can simply wipe it off with a soft cloth.
4. You can use a green scuff pad to help remove the clear coat finish.
5. Spray more solution on stubborn areas using the scuff pad to help remove the clear coat.
6. Wet sand the entire boat after removing the clear coat with 1000 grit first, 1200-1500 2nd, and 2000 grit last.
7. Buff on low speed 1200 RPM with a liquid rubbing compound. I used purple 3M compound.
8. Use a finishing , swirl compound last.
The clear coat removal went really quick on my boat after I got the hang of it. You will spend some time wet sanding. I purchased a DA / wet sander for 125 bucks and did the entire top cap of my boat in 4 hours total with 5 grits of paper. After you buff the boat out the finish will be amazing. If your clear gel is gone you're not going to want to use this. I had to re gel a 2 foot long 7" wide area on my top cap after using a paint stripper on gel coat. DON'T even try it unless you want to ruin your gel! Found out the hard way. Don't use any strippers on gel coat, no matter what folks tell you. It softens up the gel and you'll have all kinds of issues. This has worked on a couple of my buddies boat also so I know I just didn't get lucky on my boat. Only thing I've seen to get clear coat paint off your hull.