"First you have to understand Gel coat is intended to be applied first to a well prepped, polished surface, like inside a mold. The clear coat is applied, then the color coats and fiberglass is applied over it. It's not really made to go on as a top coat after the product is made, but with additives is can be used on top."
- There is so much wrong with that. Fiberglass is the core of the boat, the mold is made OF fiberglass. Then a fiberglass filler is applied to smooth it out and prep for gel. Then the main color is sprayed, followed by flake, then finally clear coated.
Honestly, a 2001 you should be able to put a pretty good shine on it with a buffer. Start with a course compound with a cutting pad and go around the boat once or twice , then switch to a polishing pad and a less aggressive compound. You really have to put a lot of pressure / heat on it at first to get the shine back, but be careful to always keep the pad moving to avoid burning through the gel.
If you're dead set on re spraying your boat, you have a lot of work cut out for you. - First use a wax remover on the whole boat, twice. Leaving wax on before you sand will just spread th wax around and get it into every little pore and when you finally spray the new gel it will fish-eye and look like ****.
Then tape off everything you don't want to get scuffed by accident, and begin sanding with 320 grit until all of the shine is gone.
The hardest part will be spraying it, and is the part I'm least familiar with. You'll need a pretty big air compressor and a gun, probably around a gallon of gel, flake, and clear. Make sure to mask off the rest of the boat off before spraying to prevent overspray from getting everywhere as well.
