Buffing hazy outline out of boat gelcoat after vinyl sticker removal

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Been a while since I've visited but happy to say I've finally picked up my polisher and am giving it a shot, albeit on a different subject than originally planned. I've been fortunate enough to attend a couple Thursday night classes at Autogeek which laid the foundation for me, but I don't have much experience polishing outside of that.

I recently purchased a 2005 Key West boat, which has had a vinyl sticker name on both sides of it for at least 8 years of its life. Its not my style so I knew it wasn't going to stay.

I went ahead and peeled the stickers off today and removed the adhesive with Goo Gone. Took about 2 painful hours to do both sides, then I washed with soap and water and dried. Happy to say that the boat already looks better and most people would never know it was there.
However, I do know it was there and I want to fully polish it out. There isn't a noticeable shadow left behind from sun fading, however when you look at the right angle there is a hazy outline left behind.

I have some basic tools here to work with:
Porter Cable 7424
5" backing plate
5.5" Orange Light Cutting Pads
5.5" Black Finishing Pads
Meguiars M105
Meguiars M205

With the little bit of light left, I started with the M205 on a black pad and it made a small difference, but not much after about 8 total passes of up/down and side/side.
Then I tried a tangerine light cutting pad with the M205 and did the same thing. The area I have polished is about halfway gone, but it is still there. I'm applying a medium amount of pressure. I'm trying to start small and go slow... not sure if I should be using the M105 at this point, and with which pad... any input? I haven't found as much info out there about gelcoat so I don't want to do something wrong here.

Thanks for the input! Looking forward to shining this up properly (the seller told me it had a $1000 full detail about 6 months prior but even I know enough at this point to know that is a load of crap, lol. Although the boat is in good condition overall, it certainly hasn't been brought to a high polish any time recently).

Oh here's a photo... look close enough at the bottom pic and you'll see what I'm working on here... and also the name that was removed, haha

Thanks,
Bryan

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

What you're seeing is called


Ghosting


I cover this topic in the threads below...


Ghosting on boat after removing letters


Before

After

TheHullTruth.com - Ghosting on removal of stripes

Here's the lettering that was on my boat...

Here it is after wetsanding, compounding, polishing and waxing....

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

not sure if I should be using the M105 at this point, and with which pad... any input?

Yes go straight to the M105 and the most aggressive pad you have for your DA.

The THIN Purple Foamed Wool pads by Lake Country or even the Meguiar's microfiber cutting discs will cut the gel-coat better and faster than any foam pad as fibers are a type of abrasive.

From my experience it's all but impossible to remove the ghosting effect 100%.

If and when it is possible it will almost always require you to hand or machine sand the gel-coat to sand off an ample amount of gel-coat and thus remove the portion that has been altered by the graphics.

Even when sanding doesn't remove it 100% it will remove it better than just buffing alone. The boat we used for my last boat detailing class had ghosting left in the gel-coat after the graphics were removed and they are a lot harder to see today.

Our boat detailing class covers hand and machine sanding of gel-coat boat in condition category #4


Marine 31 Boat Detailing Class Pictures - April 18th, 2015


I always show two ways to hand sand starting with how to wrap a backing pad....

Followed by the correct way to move your sanding pad over the surface. There's a right way and a wrong way. There's also hand speed and pressure to be aware of as well as how long to sand.

Next I show an easier way to hand sand... a much easier way...

Next up is the easiest way to sand and that's to machine sand. This portion of the class goes over how to use both air sanders and electric machine sanders safely as well as the correct techniques for machine sanding.

I haven't found as much info out there about gelcoat so I don't want to do something wrong here.

Thanks,
Bryan

Long time no see Bryan....

As for info on gel-coats and boat detailing in generally, it takes time to build up a boat detailing forum with a lot of information but we've already started and she's growing at a steady pace.



Marine31Online.com - Boat Detailing Discussion Forum

Also, if you have a rotary buffer and a wool pad that's how you should go after both oxidation and ghosting when not sanding first. Dual action polishers are kind of on the weak side for boat detailing except for applying a finishing wax, machine sanding or machine scrubbing molded-in non-skid.