What would you do?
I'm looking to buff a 56-year-old gel coat.
The gel coat is in remarkably good shape but definitely has lost its shine.
Its looks nice and dark when its wet and has not worn through on any corners. What compounds and pads would you all recommend? I am figuring to start on the less aggressive side and up the ante so to speak if needed. Any specific brand, parts, pads etc, recommendations are sought.
Also, what are your important lessons learned especially from errors.
Thanks in advance
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Hi Matthew,
Like many we purchased a boat that had been neglected for quite some time - the sides were chalk. If you are bringing up gel-coat, I'd recommend a good heavy duty buffer - not an orbital. The orbital won't do the work you'll need it to, or in the end you'l be unhappy with the results. I used a vairable speed Makita 7" buffer with wool pads - using hand applied 3M FIberglass Restorer & Wax. Awesome stuff. After that, we put on a coat of Collinite Paste Fleetwax #845... it protected the work that we had just done with the the 3M product. We did this each year, and by 2-3 years in, our shine was back to as good as new. Once we were able to cut down the real bad oxidization, we held off of the Restorer & Wax, and used 3M cleaner wax... and now, we don't even do that every year... But, we always apply a coat of the Collinite (apply by hand, machine off).