Gel coat buffing and polishing
 

I have a '04 Donzi 33 ZX and the paint and gelcoat are in pretty good shape. There are a couple of spots on the bow that need to be buffed to bring out that brand-new shine. I want to know some of your technics and products used. High-speed buffer, obital, or hand-polish? Has anyone ever used a rouge stick and if so, what brand?

This is what I've tried and it has worked - but I am in NO WAY a qualified expert on re-finish or buffing

I have a DeWalt random orbital sander - I purchased a sponge pad that "hooks" to the sanding plate from Harbor Freight. I then put some 3M oxidation remover on the pad and did the underside of my boat -- the reason why I used the orbital sander was that the High-Speed (or in my case variable speed) buffer got too heavy to keep above my head -- it took a while but I got ALL of the oxidation off. I then hit it with a little wax and it looks like it came out of the box.

best of luck

3pointstar

After "offshoreexcursion" recommended "presta" super cut for gel, I was sold!!! My gel was in good shaped but that stuff made it look new and a foot deep shine! Used the compound pad from harbor frieight and it worked awesome.. Still have to do the visible parts of the bottom from the eye down, but it's a great product.

Good deal nail it super cut is all we use. Also use gelcoat cut by presta. I steer away from 3m stuff on gel and use it only on paint. I've been a painter for over 20 years and own a fiberglass shop in Oklahoma. Now here's why we don't use 3m on gel. It's full of petroleum!!! So any boat will look good for a month or two. When we use presta it's water based on gelcoat so what you see is what you get. If boat is heavily oxidized I will cut with aqua1000 then super cut then gelcoat and finally Meg's flagship. I get so tired of hearing about how people use perfect this and that. Take some tranny fluid and go to a boat junkyard and touch a spot with it on a faded boat and wow it looks awesome for about a month. Now polish the gel with water based and then wax it and it will last for 2 to 3 years if u keep it waxed. That's why we made one hell of a name for ourselves on my lake. Some people get tired of paying thousands for something that falls apart every summer. Ours don't and this is our method. Hope this heps

Thanks for the advice. That Presta stuff sounds pretty good. Do you have link on where to purchase it on line?

They have great products, for yearly detailing I use there Chroma 1500 polish followed by Collinite 885 paste wax.

http://www.prestaproducts.com/

Shane:

I have a 2005 Dominator that has been around salt water. When you wipe your hand across the deck you get a white chalky reside on your hand. I used Meguirs rubbing compound on the transom to remove some black marks followed by there wax. Results were ok but not really impressed. I am going to do the hole boat in a couple of weeks. Could you or anyone else recommend products/steps? I also have a Sears buffer I have used for years on my cars, but it looks like from the threads I have read that everyone is using an orbital. I am not a professional and try to wax my old boat twice a year. Just looking for tools, products and steps to get professional results.

Greg

Buffers are just that buffers. If you have a harbor freight go get a variable speed polisher .we use makitad and dewalt but we use everday so u don't need expensive one but get at least the 70 doll.one as far as chalk you might have to wet sand the boat to close the pores in the gel. If you are a little scared of that then I would start with aqua1000. This stuff will polish raw aluminum. Get you twisted wool pad for aqua and shortcut. Then foam or something no ad aggressive. If you have graphics be careful on those we usually will mask them off in outline and do them seperately if painted on like formula etc.etc. if you could see gel under a microscope you will see its very porous and that is oxidation when the pores are big so what you want to do is close the size of the pore. I can't stress enough about be careful with polisher gel coat loves speed so keep it wet with compound but not a bunch and watch out for cleats etc. The polisher is gear driven and will knock you out if it catches. It's not hard and the end result will make you feel great that you did it yourself and its shiny like a new penny. Every boat is different on how we approach the gelcoat restoring. Keep all your pads seperate and have one pad for each compound. It will suck the first night I know you will be sore from polisher. Follow the steps and read the directions on bottle and enjoy your new shiny boat.if you have any questions don't hesitate to pm me. Thx.

I'm reading some of my posts I'm so sick of spell check!..... This **** gets old some of it don't even make sense and they spell check it anyway

Well isn't that just peachy!

For sale several gallons of 3M 05955 Super Duty Rubbing Compound.

Thanks for the explanation of the difference, I guess I will order Presta from now on.

That's what I get for avoiding any thread with the word Buffing in it. lol

Ok question. On the Aqua buff, which one. I would assume F since W is not for white hulls.

http://www.duratec1.com/pdf/AquaBuffProductSelector.pdf

I just called Presta and spoke to a Gary there. He was very helpful and very knowledgeable. I will be ordering there pads and the following products Ultra Cutting Crème Light for the buffing and Marine UV Crème wax for the final wax. I will be purchasing the random orbital buffer from Harbor Freight, they offer a warranty for 10.00 on the buffer. Plan on doing the whole boat in the next couple of weeks. I will take some before and after pics and let ya'll know how it all turns out.

Greg

Jv you can get aqua cheaper from ccp or composites one. Aqua 1000 then you can go aqua 2000 but I prefer presta super cut after the aqua 1000. Remember it goes a very very long way. When it starts getting dry use a spray bottle with water for example a dab with a 3 inch chip brush it will do a 2 to 3 foot area.

Hey miller try to get the black and white twisted wool pads they last longer. And keep them separate or wash them. No dishwasher that can lead to divorce or closed legs for a couple of weeks.

Do you put the Aqua 1000 or the Presta Ultra cutting cream on with a high speed buffer or is the orbital sufficient?

Liquid:

When I talked to Presta they really wanted me to use a high speed but warned to be real careful. This scared the chit out of me don't want to burn the finish. They said with a dual action I will get the desired results just might take a little longer to build the heat in the product to get the results. I am willing to take a little extra time and not chance f***ing anything up.

Thanks Miller
I have to agree with you I have all the time in the world right now since I can't put it in the water.

I agree, 3M sucks. I always laugh when someone comes up and talks to us about our product choices and they say they'll stick with Perfect-it. You see them later struggling with a dull boat full of swirls/holograms. I prefer to finish with Meguiars M105/101/100 and their microfiber cutting disks on a dual action. It really brings the gloss and depth out. Lasting results don't lie.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...oads/image.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...ds/image-1.jpg

Btw, when purchasing Aqua Buff, get the 1 gallon pail. You may think you will need more compared to how much 3M you would use, but one gallon will do a cruise ship or your whole marina. I've had the same pail for almost 2 years and I've probably got 1/2 left. You barely use any on a single boat.

I did not think this was too bad given that it was 3M Super cut and not even polished. Wool pad.
I think it's got everything to do with whom is doing it. I will give it on the long term of water based though.

http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2d7f994f.jpg

Nice job vc. To the others you won't need aqua if it's not heavily oxidized the super cut and gel coat compound should do what you need then follow with flagship. As far polisher I would use the dual action with flagship and polisher with the cutting compound. It's hard to mess up but if your scared that's ok. On white gel a burn is really a burn it turns it yellow then you have to wets and it out and hope you don't cut through. I only posted about the water based stuff so everyone on here can stop wasting time with petro products I.e. Automotive product. Now if it's painted graphics then that's different. It's very important on the wax too because the flagship is designed for gel it's polymer based. I will try new products anytime also. Glass Dave recommended somebody some stuff I've never heard of and I'm looking into that to try. Polishing a boat is not the easiest stuff in the world but the end result will leave you feeling good and it WILL last. Nothing works better than elbow grease and if it's easy stuff like wipe on wipe off then it don't last. Just a side note from a repairer stand point stuff like vertiglass is a joke and is a repairer nightmare. I say when you are done post pics of before and after and watch how long your hard work lasts compared to 3m perfect it and the other compounds they have. But don't get me wrong I won't use anything else besides the 3m on paint there is nothing better and as crazy as this sounds I love presta on boats but hate it on cars. When we used it on cars and I worked on European mostly it would polish great then when you washed car for delivery sand scratches would come back and it drove us crazy which was with sikkens autoclear 2 and that stuff flowed out to glass when baked so polishing a nice laid out job sucked. We would nib a couple pieces of dirt and it would show back up. But presta super cut , gelcoat compound hands down on boats. I hope this helps everyone. Most of all enjoy make your boat pretty rather a 18 foot or 45 skater have fun....

Looks nice......

good stuff, ya know what i find interesting about products is the range of results with any given compound. I have pretty much given up on everything 3M and Meguires has to offer but at the same time cant argue with the results i see from other pros in the biz. I use Farecla G3 on restoring or finalizing fresh paint jobs with fantastic results. For restoring gel i use Virba Cut and Totally Buff from www.fountainofyouthrestore.com and have had the best results out of any product i have ever had in my shop yet occasionally i have heard it doesnt work for some. I think Mastercraft on here used Vibra on one of his boats with not great results, I have no doubt he knows what hes doing but at the same time shows you how much each of our techniques vary and how sensitive some of these products are, a few others have had mixed results as well. As you get familiar with one product the techniques dont necessarily transfer to another. You have to develop an ability to sort of see how a compound works and how to bring out the results. Buffer speed, pressure, direction, pad etc all come into play but some things are a standard given like keeping pads fresh and segregated by what compound you use on it, one product per pad. Wool on gel and foam on paint is what i stick with but at the same time i have an old school custom painter near me that swears by wool on everything and his show cars are flawless plus he still wet sand everything by hand (i do everything with a da but we are wor5king large flat surfaces).

Give Totally Buff a shot, its a self cleaning diminishing compound that works itself down to a polish as you go and the thing i like about it the most is it never loads up the pad. I have done my 38ZX without ever spurring the pad once. Word of warning though it flings off this dusty stuff as you go that blows away pretty easy but makes a mess out of the work area if you do a lot of boats. Best to use it outside if ya can, its not horrible but kind of a nuisance :cool:

If your lookin to try some of there stuff give them a call and ask for Kevin tell him glassdave sent ya
Totally Buff - light polishing and oxidation
Vibra Cut - heavy cut
Vitreo - final wax
Quick Shine - real nice detail wax

I've got to recommend the FOY products also. After spending Days, Buffing a 89 Wellcraft with 3M. My samples of Vibra Cut arrived and Holy ****... That stuff is incredible. It will remove water scum, grease and hand prints , and leave a shine with minimal effort . I threw about 500.00 worth of 3M crap in the garbage. I'm looking forward to the Presta and Aqua Buff ,showing up. We have about 5 boats to compound out !

haven't tried Presta yet gonna hafts check it out, Aqua Buff is nice stuff though. With the FOY products I try to use Totally Buff on most stuff because it clears the pad so nice. Vibra is some rippin stuff but does load the pad a bit so ya hafta spur often, guess thats to be expected with a heavy cut.

Anyone remember Rolite? This is what we use to use before there were good specific marine compounds. It was an aluminum polish used by machine shops. it worked pretty well but was a pain to use, loaded up the pad and smeared the surface if you weren't careful around cleats and stuff. It was unavailable for a year or so then showed back up with a new lable and a can half the size for the same price :rolleyes: I think it was called Yacht Brite or something. It was an old school compound that pales by todays products.

I used Shurhold Buff Magic and Pro Polish with good results and then tried FOY products The FOY products worked great. This year I am trying Performance Boat Candy. The Performance Boat products in my opinion seemed to do a little better than the FOY products but, the true test will be the durability. It will be interesting to how the Performance Boat Candy stands up to the elements.

P.S. I used the Fountain of Youth products after reading posts by glassdave. Thanks Dave!

Buff Magic & Vitreo Polish
 

Old topic but still very relevant.

I just finished polishing my 382.
It was quite chalky when I started.

Definitely a huge job - I used Buff Magic and then finished with Vitreo ( Fountain of Youth product ) for the final wax.

Personally I'm very happy with the final result.

http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/...psvkxvqpug.jpg

Just ordered a quart each of Totally Buff, Vitreo, and Quick Shine. Excited to see how this works on my 27 ZR!

One tip I agree with is - only use quality wool pads and change them out frequently.
Let the polishing begin!

I know it's been a couple of months since this was brought up, but I just got my boat out of storage. I went with Glass Dave's recommendation on the FOY and after just the total buff I couldn't believe how good an old 1988 boat looks. It is hands down the easiest compound I have ever worked with. The fact that it's self diminishing is awesome. No more 3 steps to get to a nice polished shine from the compound.

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...psdpbmfuj8.jpg
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...psetltktbp.jpg

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9tif52xd.jpg

Can you send a picture of the bottle you used ?!?

http://www.power1one.com/Fountain_of...ally_Buff.html

Here is the website I bought it on. It isn't a bottle you will find locally

How much product did it take for you're boat?

The VIP is 23ft. And it took about half a bottle give or take some. I still have enough left to do my 220 Stingray. I bought the quart and if I didn't get the shine I wanted on the first round I just out more down and did it again. I would say on a 23 foot boat that isn't horribly fades you could use a Pint and have enough product.

All I know is if I get low in buying another quart and I'm gonna buff my dad's 19ft. Open bow.

I also bought the cuddy buddy and cleaned my interior. It was pretty bad and tried some other cleaners and did work great. The cuddy buddy made it look great as well. Here is the listing for the boat to see how clean everything is. It is all cleaned with FOY products and I'm super happy with the product line.
https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/boa/6102591060.html

Thanks, I'll be ordering some.

Use a variable speed buffer not real fast with a wool pad. Start with Aqua buff 1000, Then go to Aqua buff 2000, world of difference and then finish off with perfect it. You'll see the wrinkles in your face.

is there a particular foam pad that is best for removing wax? (mitcher t paint )

Ai planned on using my cyclo polisher with the foam pads and presta or FOY products. Should I only use the wool or will the foam work with it?

Anybody have any pictures of the aqua-buff/presta super cut/presta gel coat compound results to compare to the FOY product recommendations results above?

Need to buy product this week for sand & buff session.