Working the gel coat

The gel coat hardened nicely into a rock hard service. End the end it was quite runny; the top surfaces look better than the sides. On the top, the fabric is hardly visible; on the side, the fabric is clearly visible, and overlapping fabric sticks out. So, sanding down the surface before applying the gel coat will be important.

Then I tried to sand down and polish a sample. That worked quite well, though I probably want a small electric sander since the surface is pretty hard. On the other hand, by the time the surface was smooth is wall almost gone, too. This implies two things:

1. Smooth the surface before applying gel coat. This implies that I should use two layers of fabric; otherwise there is nothing to sand down.
2. Use two layers of gel coat. It's a good question if I should sand down and polish the gel coat - the surface looks very nice as it is (glossy), and should look even nicer if the base has been smoothed. It does not need to look as smooth as glass for me!