Moderate Boat Oxidation. Wetsand or Buff?

PursuitDT

PursuitDT

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Hey guys/gals,

I inspected a 22ft Four Whinns H210 today for a new client of mine. It has moderate oxidation on the upper portion of the black paint. It's black with a white top. Wish I had photos to share, but that was my mistake. I'm trying to figure out the most efficient way to go about doing this.

Scale 1-10 (10 being really bad)
I would say its a 6-7.

1. Do I wetsand the gel coat down to eliminate the oxidation?

Or

2. Do I buff out the gel coat with my D/A and MF pads? (Keep in mind I do not own a rotary)

I'd like to see if I can get Mike's input on this!
Hope for some feedback.
Thanks.

:xyxthumbs:
 
Do a small trial spot with the D/A and let the results tell you which way to go.
 
That was gonna be my first point of attack, utilizing a test spot to determine correct procedure.
Wanted to give the customer a couple quote options to work with based off how well it would be eliminated. I'll have to do a test spot first to determine that. I don't want to undercut myself, especially on a job like this, not to mention it is black.lol
 
With only a DA, wetsand (dampsand). If there is much oxidation at all you're just going to gum up pads like crazy and take forever with a DA. I usually use 3m Trizact discs. Start with 1000, then do 3000, then compound, polish (if needed) and seal. If you owned a rotary I'd say throw some 3m super duty on a wool pad and give it hell, but without that setup sanding is the way to go!
 
PursuitDT said:
Hey guys/gals,

I inspected a 22ft Four Whinns H210 today for a new client of mine. It has moderate oxidation on the upper portion of the black paint. It's black with a white top. Wish I had photos to share, but that was my mistake. I'm trying to figure out the most efficient way to go about doing this.

Scale 1-10 (10 being really bad)
I would say its a 6-7.

1. Do I wetsand the gel coat down to eliminate the oxidation?

Or

2. Do I buff out the gel coat with my D/A and MF pads? (Keep in mind I do not own a rotary)

I'd like to see if I can get Mike's input on this!
Hope for some feedback.
Thanks.

:xyxthumbs:
Click to expand...
No rotary no sanding.Just polish and compound the best you can with the tools you have.If your client is going to pay you a considerable amount of money to sand then I personally would buy a rotary.And you will have one for the next job .
 
Very useful. I have Cobalt 242 that is 6 years old and has moderate oxid (6/7 out of 10)Tried using my flex 3401 with compound/ wool pad test spot (result = it will take me until Christmas 2019 to get it done). Looks like I either wet sand it or get a rotary n hit with wool/compound. Will do a wet sand with 3000 grit (least aggressive) using my 3401 and see what happens. Been reading Mikes book n am leaning toward sanding
 
Mike Phillips and I several years ago introduced his marine31 products over at thehulltruth.com as I was a moderator there, and the easiest, quickest, safest way that I found to attack gelcoat was with a rotary, a purple hybrid wool pad and a moderate compound. On Gelcoat that has been oxidized, I found an oconventional orbital, no matter what you did, wouldn't touch it. It would finish it fine, but It wouldn't do the heavy work.

Here is the how to , with pictures, from hulltruth…

Oxidized gelcoat makeover (Pics) - The Hull Truth - Boating and Fishing Forum
 
forced rotation da, purple wool pad and marine31 heavy cut oxidation cleaner followed up by gel coat color restor by marine 31. i have a post under collinite 925 where i have before and after pics
 
Take a look at Meguiar's "Heavy Oxidation Scrub" (M-771). I think there may even be a vid over at Meguia's web site.

Bill
 
Reporting back on Cobalt mentioned above. I hit it with DA using 3000 sandpaper, then wool(marine 31 compound n polish,then light cut pad with same compound n polish,followed by wax n sealant. Don’t have pics but seemed to work very good. ( I had tried wool using rotary with heavy cut n compared to sanding , the sanding gave better results). Thanks for all advice.
 
I just did an 87 FourWinns 195 that was white, light blue, and darker blue. I would say it was probably somewhere near what you are describing 6-8 bad. Flex and yellow cutting pad with McKees RV heavy cut wouldnt touch it, Wool pad on HF rotary and same compound did a pretty decent job (maybe 70-75%) and still took me some good time. If you have the sanding ability and equipment I would suggest it. Make sure you charge plenty too lol.

001.jpg


001a.jpg


002.jpg


002a.jpg
 
Boat looks good. Luckily the Cobalt is my boat(6 years old n a. BIt neglected so now in recovery mode. The interior seating n top fiberglass are in excellent shape Been buffing cars now tackling boats so use mine to practice. Hooefully i can take one if Mikes classes in the future on gel coat work
 
PursuitDT said:
Hey guys/gals,

I inspected a 22ft Four Whinns H210 today for a new client of mine. It has moderate oxidation on the upper portion of the black paint. It's black with a white top. Wish I had photos to share, but that was my mistake. I'm trying to figure out the most efficient way to go about doing this.

Scale 1-10 (10 being really bad)
I would say its a 6-7.

1. Do I wetsand the gel coat down to eliminate the oxidation?

Or

2. Do I buff out the gel coat with my D/A and MF pads? (Keep in mind I do not own a rotary)

I'd like to see if I can get Mike's input on this!
Hope for some feedback.
Thanks.

:xyxthumbs:
Click to expand...


Not that you can't bring an old thread back to life, but the above was posted,

05-06-2017, 04:54 PM



Markymapo said:
Very useful. I have Cobalt 242 that is 6 years old and has moderate oxid (6/7 out of 10)Tried using my flex 3401 with compound/ wool pad test spot (result = it will take me until Christmas 2019 to get it done).

Looks like I either wet sand it or get a rotary n hit with wool/compound.

Will do a wet sand with 3000 grit (least aggressive) using my 3401 and see what happens. Been reading Mikes book n am leaning toward sanding
Click to expand...


Here's the deal.... oxidation tends to go INTO the gel-coat so when gel-coat has visible oxidation buffing the surface will restore the shine but it will tend to revert back fairly quickly. Machine sanding will remove all of the oxidation and the results will last longer.

If it's not to bad, then possible Mirka Abralon with #3000 followed by #4000 and then Captain's Compound with a rotary buffer and wool pad. Follow this with the RUPES blue foam coarse pad and the same compound. Then chemically strip and apply Gtechniq C1 Crystal Lacquer.


See picture here,

BEFORE & AFTER - EXTREME Gelcoat Oxidation Removal + Ceramic Coating


See how we did it here,

Pictures: 2018 Boat Detailing Class at Autogeek with Mike Phillips



Next class is February, 9th and 10th 2019 and it's already filling up.


boatclassfor2019.jpg








:)
 
Learned my lesson not hitting my boat with more passes during wet sanding with 3000 grit thinking I could get the remaining with wool n Captains one step compound n polish. May try 2000 grit followed by 3000, then wool, then polish (test spot). So wanted to take Mike,s class this past winter but my job sent me To China at the same time as his class( the trip was well worth it as I work on developing Oncology drugs). Maybe 2020 I can make the class
 
I ended up going down to 2000 grit, followed by 3000 then wool then foam pad , wow what a work out and still have another side of the boat to do. Just for fun I hit a section with 1000, then 2000, then 3000 then wool then foam pad, but that’s a lot of work. Thanks for the input
 
Mike Phillips said:
Not that you can't bring an old thread back to life, but the above was posted,

05-06-2017, 04:54 PM






Here's the deal.... oxidation tends to go INTO the gel-coat so when gel-coat has visible oxidation buffing the surface will restore the shine but it will tend to revert back fairly quickly. Machine sanding will remove all of the oxidation and the results will last longer.

If it's not to bad, then possible Mirka Abralon with #3000 followed by #4000 and then Captain's Compound with a rotary buffer and wool pad. Follow this with the RUPES blue foam coarse pad and the same compound. Then chemically strip and apply Gtechniq C1 Crystal Lacquer.
Click to expand...

Any suggestions for a non skid gel coat surface that is oxidized? It could definitely use some sanding, but the “non skid” is gel coat in the shape of little waves (blue wave pure bay 2400) so sanding would actually damage the non skid. I’ve had amazing results using presta compound, but I’m worried about long term correction and I definitely don’t want to keep going through this.
 
See my reply to your thread.

There’s 3 commonly used types of non-skid

1: Molded-in = gel-coat

2: Painted.

3: Sundeck (could be wrong on this word, I don’t have my book in front of me)


You can machine scrub molded-in as this is gel-coat and it’s tough.


:)
 
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