Boat Polishing
 

Well the contender I bought a few years ago had some oxidation so I figured I would DIY the job and same some cash.

I bought the shurehold system complete with their compound last year.
It definitely works well and it was a lot of work but it brought the dark gel coat back to life.

http://shurhold.com/dual-action-poli...FbNk7AodLmGtKg

Fast forward to 2012 and I am back to oxidized gelcoat again and in doing a little research I tried the product below.

http://lghttp.12228.nexcesscdn.net/8.../4/6/46339.jpg

This 3m stuff worked much better and I used less of it.
It cut through the oxidation and it took me about 1/2 as long to apply and remove it.
Just passing this along to anyone who is in the same boat.

A coat of wax will follow to see if I can get it protected even longer between polishing.

Hey Glen, use the Colinite 920/925 pre wax/wax. Not cheap and it's a two step process but it's very good! TA Mahoneys has it.

I love that 3M Imperial! Cant say enough about it. I did my boat first then on to my painted alum box trailer. Both look AMAZING after buffing down with that stuff. My 1972 hull was heavily oxidized before a couple of applications with the buffer wheel. The picture is after 3-4 passes then a couple applications of Poly glow. You can actually SEE a reflection now!

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/t...b/PC140204.jpg

POLY-GLOW works well for me

X2

I will give it a shot!
Anything not to have to repeat this process yearly.

Ultima Paint Guard Plus is the shit. Wipe on and walk away. And it works well

Wax
 

After the Collininites prewax/wax, go over it with a coat of Collinites Insulator wax. Wax a 23 CC insite and out in less than 4 hours this past weekend, including the t-top.

Here is a bad cell phone picture of the work.
Anyone have any products to use on the aluminum T Top for pitting.
I have read about Woodys wax.

http://thumbnails65.imagebam.com/180...d180704077.jpg

I'd like to find somtjing also my t top fairly new. It the leaning post is older and need a. Eter shine

Woody Wax
 

Woody Wax works great it is manufactured in Jupiter Fl just 2 blocks from my work. It works great on non skid surfaces as well and fish blood will rinse off with water

The best stuff I have ever used for oxidized gel coat is Awlgrip :)

strick

X2, You Betcha!!!! Ha Ha Ha!

Definitely!

I did that on my 20ft shamrock and she came out great.
The Contender is not at that stage yet but it will be in a few years as I am not really in love with the dark green.

Bringing back the Gelcoat
 

Back in the early 90's before Andrew came to Homestead I wanted to paint my '79 Sceptre with Awlgrip. A buddy of mine talked me into trying this proccess first. Wet sand the hull with 400 grit then 600 grit (I wet sanded by spraying the boat with a hose and used a electric makita palm sander " I'm a unionized trained electrician 30 years+" ha,ha crazy huh I know, with just enough D%$b A#@ to boot). Then I bought a commercial grade buffer and used a 3M rubbing compound and 3M yellow bee's wax. It took one evening after work each night to complete each step. When I finished the proccess, the gelcoat looked brand new. I did have the minor dings and scratches left but the Sea Craft yellow hull looked like a million bucks. It looked like a mirror and you could clearly see your reflection . Everyone commented on the quality of the original gelcoat and could'nt believe the results and how they were achieved. The finish was still fine a few years later until the new owner painted her red. Caution; the buffing wheel will make a man out of you, so today 20 year's later I would recommend to take her down the street to the fella's and have them run the buffer for a couple hundred buck's. So try a small spot and see what you can do with your particular finish, that's how I got started and just kept going. You'll know within few minutes of work how she''ll turn out . You could tell the wife you saved a pile of money and now can afford to buy that top of line 12"Lowrance combo unit.

Wild Bill

"You could tell the wife you saved a pile of money and now can afford to buy that top of line 12"Lowrance combo unit."

Heck, tell her you're gonna buy it anyway....TS...like it or not!!!! Don't worry, it's only going to hurt for a little while, the bruise will go away sooner or later. :)

I ended up following up this job with Collinite and the boat turned out great. Used the 870 formula.

http://www.collinite.com/
Next is the interior...