1998 Ski Nautique Advice Needed

[Rogerscasey31]

Hello everyone, I purchased this 98 Ski Nautique with 270 hours in June. The boat did great this summer and now I’m about to make a few improvements to get it ready for next summer. I was hoping to get some advice on:

1) Will waxing the boat bring the shine back and get rid of the grey on the side? Or do I need to use a rubbing compound?

2) It has new speakers but I need new grilles. Any suggestions where I can find those?

3) Does anyone know where the u shaped piece of metal goes that is next to the engine?

4) What’s the best vinyl cleaner? I have a few stubborn spots that simple green was not able to clean.

Thanks

[NautiqueJeff]

Let's see some pictures of the sides of the boat. From what you describe, it sounds like the proper way to fix it will be to remove the graphics and wet sand it, then polish it, then wax it, then install new graphics. Wet sanding around existing graphics is tough. Let's see some pictures though to see how bad it is.

Those mesh grills are not produced any longer, but a good upholstery shop can replicate them. They are just a PVC ring with mesh attached and a piping bead around the edge. They may even be able to just replace the mesh part.

Not sure what that metal piece is. I don't immediately recognize it.

For vinyl, I always use Spray Nine Marine and a medium upholstery brush. Flush with water, and then apply 303 Aerospace protectant to restore the protective properties and block UV.

[NautiqueJeff]

Actually, pull the plastic cover off of the engine. That metal piece may be a part of the bracket that holds the flame arrestor on the engine. You'll be able to see it with the plastic cover removed.

[gary s]

Thats what it is-circled upper right in this pic- goes under the throttle body,the top half is part of the arrestor itself

[Rogerscasey31]

It was the bottom part of the bracket, thanks. If the rain holds off I’ll try to get some pictures up tomorrow.

[BrianW]

For #1, wax won't bring back a shine. You'll need to use whatever abrasive amount is needed depending on how dull the finish is. The order from least to most abrasive would be wax (no abrasive) --> cleaner wax --> polishing compound --> rubbing compound --> wet sanding. I have had a lot of success without too much effort with polishing compound using an orbital buffer. I usually start with that and then cleaner wax. The buffer makes it go much quicker. If you have more stubborn spots that you are worried about going as far as wet sanding, then you can try rubbing compound. For that I usually use a circular foam pad on the end of a drill. But with that, you need to be careful as you go over vinyl decals as it will generate heat if you stay in one spot too long and you can melt the decals. Both the foam pad set and the orbital buffer have been really useful to me - you can get them at any auto parts store. Looking forward to seeing pics!

[Rogerscasey31]

The port side of the boat has the fading, while the starboard side is in better shape. I'm thinking about starting with the polishing compound first. Any recommendations (3M Marine Compound and Finishing Material) ? Hopefully I won't have to go as far as wet sanding.

[NautiqueJeff]

That black is pretty oxidized. If you take the time to do it right, you'll be amazed at how that boat will look.

Here's one of mine that had similar colors that we removed the decals and pinstripe, wet sanded, and applied new decals and pinstripe.

Click below for a high-res version of this picture in order to see how clear the black can be with proper work.

[Super Dave]

I had good results with Ardex marine. I did end up replacing the decals like previously mentioned.



Ardex Marine 600 Heavy Duty Rubbing Compound - For Gelcoat and Painted Surfaces (32 Oz.) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017HU7OQ8..._xo31Fb40AV9F6

[bturner]

There's 2 ways to approach this and both depend on how good you want it to look and what kind of effort you're willing to put in to get it there. Your post suggest that you want to do as little as possible to get good results which is understandable. Over the years however I've found that this generally leads to me doing the same job 3 times as the "backing into it" mind set never meets the expectations I had or the results didn't last. This is especially true when it comes to gel coat restoration.

This is your boat so as long as you're good with the results it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. If you want something that looks good from 20' that's fine, get some fiberglass hull restorer, hit those areas hard using a random orbital polisher (this will help with not burning the decals) with an aggressive foam pad then lay on a couple thick coats of paste wax and your good to go. This method will get that 20' beauty result 9 times out of 10. Mind you you'll be doing this probably every season as that haze will be coming right back.

If you're looking for something stunning like Jeff's boat, suck it up and get your head around the fact that you're going to need to strip the decals/stripes and that sanding is in your future. It will be a time consuming ordeal but the results are undeniable. So much so that I've put myself through this process twice on flip boats and at least 4 times on personal boats that I've bought to keep. The good news is that once you've gone through the process the boat will stay that way with only a quick coat of wax or two a season. That and after doing a whole boat you'll be a master at sanding and polishing. I've also found it to be quite the bonding experience and you'll know every inch of that boat. I will say doing this on a flip boat makes them hard to part with.

Lastly, if you do decide to go full in consider how you plan to protect all that work once you start to use the boat. When we put our boat away for the day my daughter typically does a quick dry with a synthetic chamois and I'll follow her with a microfiber cloth and some kind of quick detailer. Just about anything on sale will do here but I used some stuff from 303 last year and it really did the job removing water spots and any leftover film that was on the boat. From a cover perspective, if the boat will be stored in a garage or storage unit just about any cover will do. If it's going to live on a boat lift in full sunlight consider a waterline boat cover that goes over the platform. My boats always sit on a lift all season. I started buying waterline/transom type covers and the difference is amazing. They're a bit more difficult to put on and take off but that minor effort is nothing like having to detail and do gel coat correction every year.

[bturner]

On product and materials......

For sanding I like using these rubber blocks from 3M to sand flat surfaces (never sand with your bare hand if possible as you're fingers will make groves in the soft gel coat).

https://www.amazon.com/3M-05517-Weto...7957577&sr=8-6

If you have a lot of rounded surfaces or tight transisions to deal with these foam 3M sanding pads have worked well for me.

https://www.amazon.com/3M-05526-Weto...1FPJ2FGRT13242

For compound I'm again a fan of 3M products and have used their Perfect It line for years. You can buy the full 3 part kit like this or buy them separately.....

https://www.amazon.com/1Pk-Perfect-B...NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Most times you can get away with part 1 or parts 1 and 2 but using part 3 on black or dark colors really makes them pop.

[Stevemo14]

I agree, you get back the amount of work you put into it. I just did my boat over the last 2 seasons.

When I bought it it looked like this, as you can see, the black is completely oxidized .


I started with just a buffer and some cutting compound, and as you can see it started doing the trick. I decided to take off most of the decals.


I got it looking decent all around, but couldn't get by the fender wells very well. I finished with 3 coats of 3m Wax.


This is after I did a full wet sand on the trailer with 1000 grit, and then buffed and polished it all out. It looked pretty good, but i couldn't get the bottom, or by the fenders very well once again . Once again i put 3 coats of 3m Boat wax on.



After being impressed with progress of what I could reach. I took the boat off the trailer in the spring. you can see the spots I could not get.



I then decided since it was off the trailer, I would strip all the rest of the decals, and wet sand 100% of the boat. I al filled in some dings that this 15 year old boat had. I worked from back to front, and as you can see it turned out pretty good. Some areas i had to use 800 grit, but mostly I used 1000, then 1200, then 1500. I did it all by hand, no sander. In hind site i probably should have bought an air orbital for this. I spent probably 40 hours just sanding. I also sanded trough 3 different fingers.

The front still had not been buffed and polished, showing you the difference.


A few new decals, and she was once again waxed with 3 coats of 3m Boat wax, and was great all summer.



I use Babes Boat Bright every time she gets put on the trailer. I also use one of those spray ceramic coats about half way into the season. Put it on just like I did the Boat Bright, and I think it worked pretty good too.

[bturner]

Outstanding results. The first 2 boats I did the same thing. I tried just compound which worked well. I then got into a couple areas that needed sanding. After doing the sanding/polishing routine then looking at the areas I just used compound I ended up going back and sanding out the whole boat.

And pictures don't do it justice. You can make anything look good in pictures but when you get next to the boat in person is where it really shows up.

Love the tower change BTW.

[Rogerscasey31]

Is the wet sanding recommended for the entire boat or just the heavily oxidized areas. Also, I was looking at the 3M Perfect-It for gelcoat. Is there any difference between it and the other 3M product?

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-products/~/All-3M-Products/Transportation/Marine/Marine-Maintenance-and-Repair/Compounds-Glazes-Buff-Pads/Gelcoat-Finishing-System/?N=5002385+8709375+8709962+8710663+8710721+8711017 +8745291+3294857497&rt=r3

[SilentSeven]

FWIW...there will be a lot of input on how to recover the finish on your boat. Everyone's got a method.

In the end, you may indeed need to wetsand the finish to recover. But, you may be able to get away with something a bit less than that. Here's rough 'order of escalation' in refinishing from low to high.

Low speed orbital polisher with foam pad - good for light oxidation removal and every day polishing. Hard to mess up.

High speed rotary polisher with wool pad - much more cutting ability to remove oxidation. Takes some skill to manage pressure, heat but not too hard. Have to use care as you can quickly burn thru decals if not careful.

Hull wet sand - Most effort, most reward. Takes skill to know how much to sand. Need to remove decals to do really do a good job. And then you still have to polish out the boat with a buffer.

If your boat was mine, here's what I would do.

Try the highspeed rotary polisher and see if it's good enough for you. You can get a Harbor Freight variable speed polisher for $50 and a wool pad for $10 more. I've had really good luck with Griot's compound...it's cheap and doesn't seem to leave swirls. You can spend a lot more if you want on exotic compounds - you'll get lots of suggestions. With this setup and some pressure - it's all about getting some friction and heat - you can really remove a lot of haze. If you don't like the results after this, go for the wetsand...you'll need the high speed buffer regardless to polish out the boat after the wet sand.

On my boat, I had some decent haze on the vapor blue water line and black portions of the hull. Dealer did a quick hit before I purchased, I wanted a better finish. I used the HS polisher and then selectively wet sanded a few areas. Removed the waterline pinstripes to really work the problem area and then re-striped the boat. It's looks really good for a 15 yo boat ... passes the 10' test with no problem. I still have a bit of haze in the black transom and it's because I just haven't been bold enough on the wet sanding. Maybe this season...or maybe I'll just continue to be happy with how it looks now (8.5 out of 10) and enjoy not messing with it more.

Hope this helps. Have fun. Take pics.