GelCoat Restoration: Pair of '98 Sea-Doo Jet Skis by AutoLavish

[MarcHarris]

A member contacted us to work on his Jet Skis. While we had worked on boats before, we had never done a jet ski. We set a price ceiling and took it from there. It took double the time to complete than I had estimated. There's a learning curve with anything so... no problem.



The owner brought the skis on their trailer (or course), and set them in the shop. They have had a full life! See below:

Should I clean them or take them to the nearest lake?

Under the seats:

Over the seats:

We started cleaning the seats with some APC 4:1

See it pulling off grime even without agitation:

After a lot of agitation, but still seemingly not enough:

Lets break out the automatic brushes

Once clean-er, we dosed them in 303 for hours to try to bring back the suppleness of the plastic. Just sprayed on heavily and left.

Other areas that needed heavy APC and elbow grease were, well, the rest... all of them:

After some APC and a pressure wash, the white lettering is coming back (notice the subtle 50/50):

Here are the handle bars, I applied APC to half of it:

Actually, he hit up the entire front half with APC:

 

[MarcHarris]

Magic eraser in one hand, brush in other, APC and Degreaser everywhere:

50/50 of the cleaned areas, no dressing yet:

Now, 50/50 of areas now dressed with 303:

Polishing took some time to nail down. We ended up wet-sanding the gel coat to help remove the heavy oxidation, them compounding with two different wool pads on the rotary, and finishing down with M105 on the Griots and a surbuff pad followed by an orange pad. Yep, lots of polishing. Here is a 50/50 or our test section:

In the following picture the left side has been finished down on the PC. The right area still needs further refining:

Hows this for a 50/50?

Right ski polished, left one not:

Smoking those orange pads:

Some of the pads we used, thrashed!

Final wash... of Jacob's floor! It now has a permanent pink hue

The owner would re-apply his Fleet Wax soon after, so we applied some Collinite for the meantime:

Good stuff:

 

[MarcHarris]

Thanks for looking!

 

[JCastro1085]

Great work guys! Talk about heavy oxidation! Always a pleasure to read your write-ups. I'm curious though, you said there was a learning curve to working on this paint, how did it differ to automotive paint?

 

[white gecko]

Wow Marc! I've never done a jet ski either, but I may pass on it now that I know whats involved if I get the request for it! That looked brutal.



Thats an exceptional turnaround, and those 50/50 shots were amazing! Great work!

 

[RaskyR1]

Great work Marc/Jacob! That 50/50 shot of the front says it all! Been a long time since I've done a jet ski but I still remember how challenging some of those areas were to buff!



Again, great work guys! :2thumbs:

 

[MarcHarris]

Great work guys! Talk about heavy oxidation! Always a pleasure to read your write-ups. I'm curious though, you said there was a learning curve to working on this paint, how did it differ to automotive paint?

Much appreciated. This overall was just harder/tougher than automotive paint, but seemed to resist heat better and made for a great turn around.

Wow Marc! I've never done a jet ski either, but I may pass on it now that I know whats involved if I get the request for it! That looked brutal.

Thats an exceptional turnaround, and those 50/50 shots were amazing! Great work!

I wouldn't say pass on it; just price correctly and make some money while providing a nice turn around

Thanks!

Great work Marc/Jacob! That 50/50 shot of the front says it all! Been a long time since I've done a jet ski but I still remember how challenging some of those areas were to buff!

Again, great work guys! :2thumbs:

Thanks a lot Chad. Hope all is well and I'll be in touch!

 

[MirrorDetailing]

I have never considered detailing jetskis before as a business. With the amazing turn around on those...almost looks like you swapped them with some brand new ones. How would you price accordingly for a jet ski? Meaning did you charge a flat rate or just by the hour? Because that looked like that took a good 15 -16 hours between the two.

 

[imported_dfazekas]

Thats some seriously impressive work, guys.

I bet the owner was really happy.

 

[Pats300zx]

Awesome work guys !!!!

 

[Dan]

Nice work, JetSki's are a lot more work than they look.

 

[Barry Theal]

Not much more to say!!!!! "Singing" Mo Money, Mo Money Mo Money That is the money shot there fella's great work!!! :wavey

 

[Labster]

Fantastic work as always guys! My buddy's dad actually talked to me about doing his Seadoo jetboat in the spring before he starts taking it out. Might be calling you with some questions!

 

[MarcHarris]

I have never considered detailing jetskis before as a business. With the amazing turn around on those...almost looks like you swapped them with some brand new ones. How would you price accordingly for a jet ski? Meaning did you charge a flat rate or just by the hour? Because that looked like that took a good 15 -16 hours between the two.

We always charge a flat rate for any work. You pay for our knowledge and expertise. Time ended up being around 4-5 hours each.

Thats some seriously impressive work, guys.

I bet the owner was really happy.

Very much so, thanks!

Awesome work guys !!!!

Much appreciated Pat. Hope all is well.

Nice work, JetSki's are a lot more work than they look.

Very much so. Took about an hour to 90minutes longer each than expected.

Not much more to say!!!!! "Singing" Mo Money, Mo Money Mo Money That is the money shot there fella's great work!!!

Thanks a lot man... now when are you coming to Mo-Town?

 

[Tru_Shine]

EWWWWW!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!