SJT wrote:

1.. The gel on both is scratched all over the place. Is it possible to get
the scratches out of a gel coat?

Sand and polish, lots of both. Something like Plastic Padding (a brand
name) Gelcoat Filler in the deeper score marks probably a good idea, or
there won't be anything left after the sanding and polishing!

2.. The Sea canoe (?) colour has faded lot, is there a way to restore the
colour like using t-cut on a car?

Probably UV fade, but you could try T-cut: if it works, it does, if not
it shouldn't do anything nasty.

3.. Has anyone sprayed a canoe? Is there a flexible spray paint that works
well on canoes?

Don't know about spraying them, but yacht paints are available from a
good chandler (where the gelcoat filler should also be found) which can
be used on glass boats successfully. A friend has taken a couple of
very ancient boats which had pretty much no gelcoat left, were very
faded and leaked like sieves and turned them into fully seaworthy and
rather smart craft by using yacht paint. It's formulated to keep going
in seawater, which is ghastly stuff for eating at things, so I'd stick
with a specialist product if you can find it.

I hoping to restore them a bit them as they look nice and it would be a
shame not to try. Any tips would be most welcome.

If it's watertight to start with it sounds like a good deal better than
the hulks my pal has rescued with sanding, more sanding, more sanding,
some more sanding, a bit of filler and yacht paint. You may have
gathered that sanding will feature in your life... ;-)

Start on the one you're least interested in: results tend to get better
with practice AFAICT.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/