Buffing Compound I Like
 

Finally found something that I like for buffing gel coat. I decided to try some of the new Meguiers #67 One-Step Compound on the hull sides to buff out the old vinyl graphics shadows. The boat is white so there was really no color change, just differences in finish.

Took about 5 hours and with an electric buffer and even up close it removed almost all traces of the graphics shadow (found a couple spots where I need to remove residual adhesive, and of course it didn't remove any of the "sins" the old graphics had hidden, that's another project). The compound has something that puts the oils back into the gel, as you could see the color change in the oxidized areas pretty much as soon as you hit it. It took a little to learn to treat it more like you would a wax than a compound, and only buff till it just starts to haze then take a rag and polish it off. If you try to buff it too dry it starts to ball and cling.

Like I said, I was quite pleased with how it worked. I think it would have worked better with a higher speed buffer, mine is only 1800 RPM on high, but it di a very nice job. I used a Meguiers foam cutting pad on the buffer, may go over some of it again with a foam polishing pad on it. I finished most of the port side with a sprained wrist (from trying not to fall off my dock float with an electric buffer in my hand) so it only needed a light touch with the buffer, and wasn't too bad at polishing the excess offf.

I think the price was about $30/bottle, and I used about 1/2 bottle on both hull sides of a 32 foot boat. The oxidation wasn't bad enough to need wet sanding, but did have some light chalking.

-Greg