My thoughts exactly.

I go by a really simple rule...if someone gives me reason to believe they are outright lying to me then I will not do business with them.

Puffery is one thing, but consistently changing the story in response to your questions? I know what I'd do!

BTW, I was a successful career salesperson for a highly respected fortune 50 company for decades. Pride and enthusiam for your company and its products and services is a highly desirable trait... but lying gets you fired.

I agree with this statement! I detail boats but my bread and butter come from resatoring/repairing exotics.....I charge 15 a foot for hull sides and deck, wet sanding and oxidisation is extra!!! it is possible to bring it back to like new condition but depending on what you have to work with it might be a ton of work.......................

I'm not trying to hijack the thread, but how many times can the sanding be repeated until you have to re-gel the boat? (how thick is the average gelcoat on boats?)

sanding should only need to be done in extreme cases, 3m has polishing compounds that will take care of the problem if it is as bad as you say. hoping you have a polisher start out with heavy cut compoud on a twisted wool pad then a micro finish on a med. foam pad then finneset on a soft foam pad finally miguires imperial wax soft foam pad. do not use same pad for diff. steps unless cleaned very well. the last 26' boat i did took 6 hrs plus washing between each step . people bring a lot of boats to me that sit outside year in and year out and this works for me and the customer can not belive how good It looks . hope this helps Martins custom marine

I would keep looking. If you want pristine, you want something that's been well taken care of. If it has alot of scratches, corrosion on the trailer etc. the owner didn't take care of it. Most dealers would have detailed it before trying to sell it. Wonder what it looked like before that?

Is this enough to get the swirl marks out, or is that not possible with the softness of gel coat? I have seen a few high dollar paint jobs on classic cars where somehow they had no swirl marks visible, even in bright sunlight.

BTW, i want to thank everyone for their advice. I passed on the Velocity 260. I took it out on a test ride since they were going to come down in price, but while on the ride I found scratches to the windshield, dash top, gauge panel, gunwale, and a crack in the dash panel. That's in addition to the scratches to everything else, including the desk, the sides, and chip on the swim platform. Even the trailer tongue jack was broken, and steering wheel cap fell off. After all the scratch buffing, I'm not sure there would be any gel coat or paint graphics left. After the test ride, I tried to open the engine hatch to check for oil leaks, and the hatch fell down as the actuator fell apart. I took that as the final omen that this boat would be nothing but trouble. Sometimes you just have to go on your gut.:D

Michael

How did the vinyl look? Did the inside of the boat smell moldy?

This is when sanding is required!!!!

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wow:eek:

I tried the lighter Aqua-Buff 2000 on a very mildly oxidized boat. It did nothing, it is not coarse enough. The 1000 may work better, heavier. 3M Super duty it heavier as well. Try buffing first, you can always sand later.