Some advice on wet sanding scratches...

[thomas205]

Hey guys, I realise this has been covered at some length on the forum before and I have done a bit of reading.

I have a black/fury red hull that unfortunately gets a lot of sun exposure. Anyway, I recently acquired a skirt cover and have decided to give the gel coat a good clean-up now that it will get a bit more UV protection.

The black is a little chalky and I found that using Meguiars #49 Heavy Oxidation Remover that I managed to get that back to black quite quickly with a wool pad on a rotary buffer. I am going to finish that up with Finesse It on an orbit sander.

My problem lies with the scratches that I have tried to remove, mostly at the transom. I took a 1200 grit paper and wet sanded them out quite easily but I am finding that the Meguiars whilst getting the shine back is not completely clearing up the underlying scratches... Should I be going to a finer grit paper or using a more aggressive compound before the Meguiars? Unfortunately I am in South Africa and not all of the common products are easy to come by...

Thanks for your advice.

[charlesml3]

Yes. You need to wet-sand again with 2000 grit. That will leave a haze. From there, you can go to a scratch remover. Meguiars has one. Then go to your polish and finally a wax.

-Charles

[Blamey]

Are you sure the Meguiars 49 didn't leave the scratches. I have never used the #49 but a heavy cut compound will leave light scratches that the Finesse it should remove.

The usual process for restoring gel is 800, 1200 wetsand. Coupound (like the #49), polish (Finesse it).

So what you are doing should work but if the #49 isn't aggressive enough then an extra round of wet sanding would help. Alternatively a more aggressive compound would also work. I'd recommend 3M Super Duty Compound.

Where in Cape Town are you using the boat? I grew up in Hout Bay. Went to high school in Camps Bay but live in New York now.

We had a place on Clanwilliam when I was a kid.

[Blamey]

I also found this regarding the #49

"M49 uses a fairly large and chunky diminishing abrasive and with diminishing abrasive type products you need to work the product until all the diminishing abrasives have broken down. If you stop working the product before the abrasives have broken down then while they still have some size to them they can instill swirls and scratches."

[Evening Shade]

Headlight restoration kits work well for scratches especially in small areas that are hard to get to with a larger buffer.

[thomas205]

Thanks for the tips guys. I picked up a headlight restoration kit and a few more pads today. I will persevere with the Meguiars and then the Finesse it and see how that goes.

Blamey, I am actually in the Garden Route, Swartvlei. I have been up to Clan William a few times, great place to boat...

[Beg4wake]

for me the best results came from 800, 1200, 2000, then even a 3000 wet sand sponge followed by meguires 105, then a 205 (although the 205 wasn't really necessary). Also, even though they look identical, an orbit sander and a d/a polisher are NOT the same thing. You'll def want a d/a polisher and not an orbit sander

[Longhorn1186]

What Beg4wake said. I just finished taking some good size scratches out. Here is the steps I did.

Clean, Clean Clean...

800, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 3000 by hand. You can use a block but you need to be very careful on gelcoat (in my case it was over Reef Blue Flake)

Once you can see the scratches are gone you will notice a dull haze. I clean again at this point.

Then with a DA polisher (I use a flex 3401) on a low setting, put 5 dabs of compound on a medium cutting pad. Work the compound on a low setting over the area you need to compound and polish. I have a few that I like. Maguires ultimate compound works great on cars. Worked pretty good on the gelcoat as well but its for heavy compounding. Chemical guys makes a med compound for boats as well that I like. I will compound with a heavy to medium compound then wipe clean. After I will make another pass with a hybrid cutting/polishing compound with the same cutting pad. Finally ill use a polishing pad and a finishing polish. At this point you will have a good as new boat and the only thing left to do is seal and wax. I will seal with jetseal and let dry and finish with collinite fleet wax 885 (apply by hand). The sealant will protect for 6-12 months and the wax for 2-4 so make sure to put the wax over the sealant. Here are my results. First is after sanding. Second is after polish and seal. I forgot to take a photo of the scratch but it was big and deep enough for my thumbnail to catch it. The streaks are just from the light coming in. The scratch is completely gone and undetectable in person. I had 2 large scratches and a few little scratches. The large ones I knew I would have to start with 800 grit but the little ones I started at 1500 grit to see if that would work. Only sand with the min that works. Hope this helps. Lake Austin always has some stuff floating around in it. Usually wood chunks or logs if you go too far up river towards Mansfield Dam but the trade off is the water is glass most of the time and the crowds are much less on the weekends. I had been lucky but finally bumped up against something.

[Blamey]

Blamey, I am actually in the Garden Route, Swartvlei. I have been up to Clan William a few times, great place to boat...

Nice, my parents had timeshare at Pine Lake Marina but I only ever went there once.

I lived in J Bay when I was little and usually went back at least once a year. Driving through and stopping off at the Garden route was always a favorite of mine. Beautiful part of the world. You are lucky to live there.

[thomas205]

Really appreciate all the wise words and advice from everyone, I realise you have all probably answered this same question numerous times. I decided to invest in a DA polisher and get the job done right.

Longhorn1186 that scratch repair on the blue flake came out very well. I hope I can emulate it although I don't think any of mine go that deep.

Blamey, we are just a few properties along from Pine Lake, its remarkable how many people you meet here whose parents at one stage or another had time share there or went there as kids. The place hasn't changed much at all over the years.