Struggling with my gelcoat, looking for advice!!

[DETAILKING]

Nice Wellcraft. You can keep trying some different products, but I don't think you are going to get the results you are looking for. There comes a time when you have done as much as you can with the gel coat to bring it back and it seems like you are very close to that point. You can try using a polish with oils in it to temporarily improve the appearance, but thats the only suggestion I can give you on top of what you have already done. If your going to be keeping the boat for a while, look into getting the hull painted or re-gel coated.

Here is my old 23' Wellcraft Nova that I brought back from the dead with 3M Super Duty compound, followed by Finesse it II using wool pads. Never got it to the point where I was happy but it looked 1000% better than what I bought it.

[Brandon1]

Originally Posted by Sherri Zann

Brandon,
This weekend I'll be starting on my 25 y.o. sunfish--white, but badly oxidized.

Unclear how #7 would help here as it is a pure glaze with no abrasives, or so I thought. Can you explain how it helps get rid of the oxidation? Or is is just re-hydrating the oxidation or something like that?

IME, it kinda soaks in and re-hydrates the paint/gel-coat and makes oxidation much easier to remove.

[1988wellcraft21]

Moutee, your results are impeccable!! Unfortunately, I'm at the point of no return on trying new products. I'm going to do the best with what I have (a couple different rubbing compounds, some polish, flitz metal polish, and Klasse AIO), and focus on my technique with the rotary buffer.

I did my deck today (all white), and the results were EXCELLENT. White is clearly much easier to shine up than red. I was blown away. Afterward, I just stood there and stared at my work, mystified. Can you tell I was happy??

Unfortunately, the red just won't get there. I've pretty much accepted it. That said, I'm going to continue with the careful wetsanding and compounding of the rest of the red, and make sure I cover everything with the Klasse for protection. I will then follow up routinely with a good polish and paste wax over the summer.

In addition, I was so blown away by the white today, I'm going to step up my efforts on the rest of the white (the area just above the rubrail all around the boat is white). I'm going to attempt to remove the pinstriping (gotta track down one of those rubber wheels), and then go at it as I did the deck. If I can get that white shining that nicely all around, my boat will be a head-turner! I will be sure to post completion pics!

[sprtslvr785]

What was your process on the white finish? What pads?

[1988wellcraft21]

Frankly I was a bit sloppier than I'd like to have been... But here was the process.
1. Wash with marine soap/water.
2. Wet sand with 1200 grit.
3. Wipe down thoroughly to remove sanded-off oxidation.
4. Compound using wool compound pad, 3M Super Duty Compound. This was the sloppy part, as the wool compound pad was getting a bit abused, and probably should have been replaced. Did OK though. Compound was applied using microfiber applicator.
5. Buff with clean/dry MF cloth to remove compound haze.
6. Polish using wool compound pad, and Gel Coat Labs Light Cut Marine Polish (properboatcare.com).
7. Buffed clean with MF cloth.
8. Applied Klasse AIO with MF cloth by hand.
9. Final hand buffing with MF cloth.

n.b. applications of compound and polish were with rotary buffer at ~1700 RPM.

Note that on my deck, the port/starboard sides are smooth gelcoat, while the center strip (about 1.5 feet wide) is non-skid. I didn't really know what to do with the non-skid, so I improvised... It got a good compounding, followed by Klasse AIO by hand. That was it. It cleaned up nicely, but obviously doesn't shine like the smooth parts. In a way, it looks even cooler that way, because the port/stbd sides look even shinier!

[Greg Nichols]

I have done two boats in my time and have used Megs 49 and 3M Super Duty, the 3M worked much faster and better in both cases. I followed that compounding up with a 3M final polish and the condition improved Greatly! I did not have time to take photos as ALL my time was spent doing the boats. I'm getting ready to do another and will attempt to do the same process. I might wetsand to see how that goes.

Boats are VERY time consuming so keep working on it, twisted wool is your friend with 3M. Wool you can run much faster without heating up the gelcoat.

Cheers,
GREG

[1988wellcraft21]

Further update on my progress...

I decided it would be a good idea to remove the upper red(thin) pinstripe on the boat, as well as this god awful massive pinstripe on either side in the stern, above the rubrail (it's like interchanging colored lines, gray/brown/orange, totally 80's). So I went after both with a rubber stripe-off wheel (3m makes one called Stripe Off, this one's a knock-off for $10 less, and seems to work fine).

I managed to get the whole port side done, but my arms were too beat to keep going. Basically this little rubber wheel spins off and grinds up the pinstripe, making it a much faster job than it would otherwise be. Problem is, my cordless drill's battery dies every few feet with it, so I'm hoping to get a nice full charge for tomorrow to tackle the starboard side.

After removing the pinstripe, the white area got the usual complement of wet sanding (1200), compound, polish, and Klasse AIO for protection. Overall, it looks good, and the pinstripe being gone makes it look much simpler/smarter. Glad I went that route before finishing up the area above the rubrail.

My revised plan is now to 1) repeat the pinstripe/wetsand/compound/polish on the starboard side above the rubrail. Below the rubrail, I'm going to just give it a few goes with the compound. I decided it's not worth trying to wetsand the whole boat, as I didn't make much headway on the port side. So it'll be compound, then polish the whole hull below the rubrail, Klasse AIO everything, and she's done! I'll be sure to post final pics...