Revive your Gel Coat!

Stizzla

Stizzla

Crew Member
FC7A992F-A0C1-474E-A68C-09665AB31E64.jpeg 82EB28A9-4168-41A0-B652-2928E6A1CDBA.jpeg 5594E75D-E0FC-4140-94A3-CA91C60132CA.jpeg I just got in after a couple of hours of satisfying work.
My DE had likely never had a coat of wax in it’s life, so I took it to he next level! I started with a wet sanding of 600 grit, followed by 1500 then 2000, cleaning between coats, then I cleaned and dried it off. Pulled out my random orbital polisher (best $300 you can spend) and did a polish followed by a liquid wax. I only did one side today, so you can really see the difference. You can really see where I pulled of the vinyl stripe in the before pic, but it magically dissapeared. t’s now almost as smooth as Rain City’s chest!

First pic is half and half, second is before and third is after:
I recommend it to anyone here with a dull, oxidized finish on your fibreglass boat.
Cheers!
Stizzla
 
Mudshark said:
Nice job
I cut waxed and waxed mine.
I might wet sand a couple dings.
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I hear the results after wet sanding first, lasts quite a bit longer. The unfinished side has a bit more dock rash, so I will add the cut polish in addition to the steps I did today, to the other side.
 
No chance Cmiles! Now I have to spend my time fishing. I’ve been told once your boat is this shiny and smooth, I will catch 200% more fish and all will 40lbs and larger.
 
The secret is to stay on top of it and polish and wax often enough as not to go too far backwards. I polish and wax my Seasport each spring and wax it again in the fall. Ideally it should be done more often but with my regiment it doesn't go to far south each year and it shines back up easily and looks just as good as the year before.
 
profisher said:
The secret is to stay on top of it and polish and wax often enough as not to go too far backwards. I polish and wax my Seasport each spring and wax it again in the fall. Ideally it should be done more often but with my regiment it doesn't go to far south each year and it shines back up easily and looks just as good as the year before.
Click to expand...
As profisher recommends...., I also use a car soap brush with a good quality boat or car soap-wax after each outing on the motors and boat. You’d be surprised how much less scum you’ll find on the boat and motors overall.
 
Once I polish and wax I just rinse off salt and and stains a quickly as possible and keep soap and scrubbing to a minimum. I've found this prolongs the life of the wax....eventually you have to scrub off some of the more stubborn stains but my goal is to keep the wax in good shape so gelcoat oxidation stays at a minimum. Way easier to scrub off a stain than polish back dull gelcoat.
 
I got the porter cable 7424xp, and a few different 5” pads from lakeshore. An orange for cutting, a blue for polishing and a gold for waxing.
To answer Damien’s question, I use a different product for each step I don’t see how you can wash on a cutting compound as you need to buff it in to agitate the surface and remove imperfections. Then you must polish to bring out the shine and wax is to protect your hard work.
 
I was really happy with the finish I got in 1 step using presta supercut with a wool pad on a makita buffer. 30 bucks for a liter of compound at Benjamin moor automotive finishes. The buffer was 10x that lol
 
That polishing really worked, nice job. Anyone had experience filling minor gouges in the gelcoat and matching the shade on the boat, so many shades of "off-white"
 
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