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Featuring
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Super High Performance Boat Polish and Wax for ALL boats: | |||
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BOAT
DETAILING Reviving your boat’s glossy finish and creating a factory-new appearance is surprisingly easy if you use the proper techniques. Follow these steps for a long-lived durable shine. Gelcoat, the exterior finish on fiberglass boats, is a porous mix of polyester resins and pigments that must be sealed from the damaging effects of ultra-violet (UV) rays, salt, dirt and weather. Neglect it, and it becomes more porous, resins oxidize and what remains is a faded, dull finish. There is no magic wipe-on, wipe-off remedy that removes oxidation and has a gloss that lasts a lifetime. Achieving a like-new shine isn’t very difficult, and doesn’t require a lot of extra work, especially if you invest in quality materials and tools. We discovered this after spending a day with Ray Lemieux of 3M Marine, an expert in boat and automotive detailing, and DIY columnist and former marine technician professor Wayne Redditt. Do these four steps to achieve a factory-new shine: wash to remove all contaminants; mechanically repair the gelcoat by sanding or compounding; chemically bond a protectant to the gelcoat to protect from further oxidation; and maintain the surface to extend longevity of protective coating.
STEP 1 Scrub the surface thoroughly with a quality boat soap and water using a wash mitt or abrasive Scotch-Brite sponge. Flush with freshwater. Don’t use automotive soaps or household soaps, which may strip the wax or damage the gelcoat. If the application instructions recommend using a certain cleaner with a specific protectant (i.e. wax) to obtain the desired finish, follow the recommendations. Use the “Oxidation Test” to determine condition of gelcoat. For surfaces in good condition that only require rewaxing, go to Step 3. For oxidized gelcoat, wipe with a solvent to remove silicone, wax or glaze buildup. Spray the surface with water, which should wet out rather than bead if all finishes are successfully removed. Two options for repairing oxidized gelcoat are: fill the cavities with a quality wax or polish (hereafter referred to as “wax”); or knock down the high spots, either by compounding or sanding until the surface is flat, then follow with a filler. Just applying a wax on heavily oxidized gelcoat is a short-term repair. The surface has sheen when viewed from the side, but no deep luster, and rain in time washes away the wax. Oxidized gelcoat, whether light or medium, is best repaired by compounding or sanding to obtain a flat surface, filled with a glaze (or wax if a one-step product), then followed with a wax.
BUFF STUFF
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Polisher/sander
with 15cm (6") disk is run at 1,500 rpm. Keep the pad as flat
as possible with pressure tilted on the trailing edge. A pad weighted
on its leading edge tends to climb and take off and get caught in
hardware. When working on sharp corners, feather the edges and always
have the pad edge coming off the corner not into the corner so it
doesn’t dig in.
Store
used pads in Ziplock bags so they don’t become contaminated with
other grits or dirt, dust and other contaminants. And don’t mix
your grits. Use one pad for the compounding, one for glazing (if applying)
and one for waxing.