Hey Guys, Need a bit of advise. I have 32ft Fourwinns as our cruiser and the gel coat had seen better days. We sanded from the rub rail down (320grt), fixed a few blems. Hand washed with dawn detergent, wiped down with fiber glass cleaner several times with a final wipe of acetone and then a tack cloth. Sprayed a light first coat and could see wipe marks. I thought, its just the residue on the gel coat from the final wipe. Sprayed the second coat and I was like WTF! Turns out one of the last rags had to have a contaminate on it it. So now its sanding time on the awgrip tomorrow night. Any idea on what to wipe the hull down with at this point to pull out and wax?

Wax and grease remover then alcohol. Better yet use plastic cleaner then alcohol.

dupont 3812,,if you can still get it..

I used Interlux (not sure on name spelling) fiberglass cleaner. Should it have been able to pull any wax out of the gel coat? When I rinsed it with water there was not one water break. I feel bad for my buddy who is the lead paint guy on this. He has painted many boats and not had a problem like this. He mentioned maybe we should have primed it first. I think clean gel coat should have been good to go. What do you think?

Plastic cleaner... I can shoot you the # when I get to work tomorrow. Nasty chit but works.

I always had good luck with a product called TUMBLER wax and grease remover. Used it for years without any problems. I find Acetone will just spread wax around.

Dupont 2320s

Awlgrip is very sensitive to surface contaminents and gelcoat is a porous surface so I would highly recommend a seal coat or primer first.

It has been a while since I painted anything but anytime I wiped with any kind of a solvent just before the paint or in between coats there was trouble.

And conventional tack cloths scare me - when they are fresh I have had them leave stuff on the surface.

My routine is

wax remover solvent (there are very specific instructions as to changing the wipe cloth, etc)
sand as needed
kitchen cleanser with scotch brite to scuff & clean
wash with water
tack wipe with a slighty damp micro fiber cloth

go to Awlgrip's website. they tell you what to do.

need to use a final wipe product with a lint free rag. 3M and awlgrip both make products specifically for that last step before spraying