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88 242LS Imron Restore

It is that time of the year again and after many short term tries at restoring the Imron paint I am seeking advice from you all.

I have red hull sides with black and gray accents. The black and gray have held up extremely well, but the red is starting to show some fading. I have tried multiple compounds which will help for the short term, but after a few months I am back where I started. I have applied the compounds with a single speed buffer which is very light duty because of my fear of burning the paint.

Is there a more aggressive compound/technique to use? Is it safe to wet sand and what results have worked well for others?

As always thank you in advance.

Jed

Quote:

Originally Posted by oreokid220 (Post 3641048)

Jed good to see you still around, that boats awesome, the red on your boat will be gelcoat, the black and grey are imron paint, be very careful with them you will burn thru real easy, as far as the gel Ive always used 3m super compound, but as old as it is its just gonna be a constant upkeep at 20 plus years old unless you wanted to get into painting the sides, a light wet sand might be worth a try, but make sure who does it is experienced and they stay away from the blck/grey

Good seeing you are around too. You have a Cig now I believe, correct?

Here is my ignorance showing......I thought all the colors on the boat were Imron paint? Why is just the red Gelcoat? I was going to take a shot at wet sanding myself. Any good advice or places to seek advice on this?

Thanks.

Jed

Quote:

Originally Posted by oreokid220 (Post 3641211)

nope I got a 271 still, alot of people think that, but nope the red is gel, and the stripes are imron, goes to show how well the imron holds up, however gel is more forgiving with nicks n suck, wet sanding is tricky, especially on colors, I do not know how to do it, well I sorta do but would never do it myself, hopefully someone will chime in for ya

I have a guy coming tomorrow to do a test patch of wet sanding on the red. He tried to compound it, but it wasnt strong enough to bring it back. I will let you know how it turns out after tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

I have an 87 242 with red hull sides and I'll also second that it is gel. Mine was almost pink in places it was so faded. I wet sanded the hell out of it with a D/A. I started with 400 grit and worked my way to 800. Then I took 3M super duty to it and finished with Finesse it. I then waxed it with Collenite Fleet wax. You must wax it with collenite or it will just fade back. You also have to go deep enough when sanding to get all of the faded gel off. It's time consuming but not hard.

Wow I thought 400 would be way to aggressive to start with and would burn it up quickly.

The guy who did it brought it back by doing 1000 and going up to 2500 finishing with compound and then a wax. It looks great, but I am currious if it will hold up well or fade after a few months without the aggressive sanding like you had done.

Thanks for the great advice.

When I did my boat I tried a lot of things that were not as agressive none of them worked or if they did it was only temporary. When I sanded with the 400 I did it dry as well. The gel coat is tough, I had a few tough areas that I really went to town on and it looks great. No sanding marks, swirls, ect. I see this spring I have two areas that I can barely see some fading. I'm going to hit those spots again. Other that, its been two years and the boat still looks like it did when I finished it. I have some pictures on here of before and after. Search for 242 restoration.

Thanks that is great information. I still can believe you went at it dry with such an aggressive paper. That still scares me. Any advice.......

How is the boat holding up today after all that work?

Jed