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Old 03-31-2015, 02:39 PM   #2
Mike Phillips
 
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Status: Director of Training
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 675
Default Re: Newbie Here - Quick Q

Quote:
Originally Posted by keitht2015 View Post

Hey everyone - Keith from Long Island, NY here. Good to be a part of the group.
Hi Keith,

Welcome to Marine31Online!

Sorry for the delay, we were out of town last weekend working at the Benedict Castle Concourse car show to raise money for Teen Challenge.



Quote:
Originally Posted by keitht2015 View Post

My question - I have a 2005 Robalo R225. The hull is a colored - light blue. Gel coat is in decent condition - no real signs of oxidation or discoloration.
Looks like this?





Quote:
Originally Posted by keitht2015 View Post

Last year I used a very light marine compound and that seemed to do just fine. But I'm a junkie - i want shine, i want protection - despite its smaller size, i want this boat to turn heads.

So - given that I don't have any heavy oxidation, should I still hit the hull with the heavy cut compound? I'm thinking it wouldn't hurt, and would take off years of light neglect and any blemishes. But maybe since it's "heavy" cut, it would be overkill and i could hurt the gel coat?

Should I consider just the gel coat restorer? I get the polish and wax part - fine with that. Just trying to determine my first step to really bring out the color.
To great questions, whether to use a heavy cut compound or a medium cut polish.

Here's my recommendation...

Get the Captain's Compound. This is an amazing compound that cuts fast and finishes out like a polish. You can use it by hand or use with any machine.

The abrasive technology used in this product top notch. It's my first choice for any boat in any condition. I'll be showing this product at my boat detailing class coming up on April 18th.

Look at the finish quality in the pictures of this thread, all we used was Captains Compound to both compound out the sanding marks and then we used this same product as our polish the only difference is for removing sanding marks we used a rotary buffer with a wool pad and to polish we used a 6.5" Blue Light Cutting Hybrid pad on the Flex 3401.

By switching to the Flex and a foam cutting pad we maximized gloss and clarity without inflicting any swirls.

Pictures: 1960 Glastron - Wetsand, Cut & Buff at Marine31Online.com



Compounding with wool pad on rotary






Polishing with same compound but foam pads on Flex 3401






Machine waxing with Flex 3401 and soft foam waxing pad





Finished results










You'll see this same approached used for this boat project,


How to wetsand, cut and buff a gel-coat boat

Before



After






Quote:
Originally Posted by keitht2015 View Post

And any reccos on what pads to use, that would help (already own the porter cable variable speed tool).

Thanks!

Keith
The Porter Cable is great for applying a non-cleaning wax but to maximize the gloss and shine plus make quick work of any oxidation and other battle wounds you really need a Flex 3401.


When doing correction and polishing work to gel-coat surfaces what I've experienced is gel-coat doesn't like soft pads. Soft pads are great for machine applying a non-cleaning or finish wax or sealant but for any abrading step be it compounding, polishing or even using a one-step cleaner/wax gel-coats likes coarser pads versus softer pads.

My favorite is the blue, light cutting 6.5" Hybrid pad on the Flex 3401 that you can see in this picture,




With the Porter Cable you can try using one of these pads, the CYAN thin 5.5" Hydro-Tech pads.

Lake Country Hydro-Tech Low Profile 5 1/2 x 7/8 Inch Foam Pads





Or the new Meguiar's maroon foam cutting disc... from my write-up here,

Meguiars 5 Inch DA Foam Discs





The idea being an aggressive or sharp foam cutting pad that is THIN so it rotates well and rotates fast on your PC.


Together with the Captains Compound you should be able to maximize gloss and clarity of the blue gel-coat and afterwards, machine apply a wax or sealant.


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