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Boat Forum / Building / June 2006Polishing fibreglass gel coat
The sun has given my fibreglass top a white bloom. If I buff an area very heavily with a mechanical polisher and T-Cut and then polish it comes up nicely. Trouble is, it's taking far too long as the gel coat seems to be much harder than the paint finishes that the T-cut and polish are meant for. Anyone know of better products / methods to get the shine back more quickly? TIA, Pete. Hi Peter, you can start with auto body rubbing compound. this comes in various grades of roughness but medium should be fine. The gel coat will come up quite nicely with this. If its not shiny enough for you, then polish with T-cut or similar after. I personally use Mcguires machine glaze for a deep gloss wet-look. Arnold > The sun has given my fibreglass top a white bloom. If I buff an area very > heavily with a mechanical polisher and T-Cut and then polish it comes up [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > quickly? > TIA, Pete. Many thanks, just the advice I need. Pete > Hi Peter, > you can start with auto body rubbing compound. this comes in various grades [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > quickly? > > TIA, Pete. We use 3M's Super Duty Compound with a high speed buffer. Then we apply Mcguires Flag ship wax with a orbital buffer. It works very well. -Chris The brown 3M compound is great for highly oxidized surfaces. If you really want a mirror finish, follow up by polishing with 3M's Finesse-it polishing compound (white). I use Collinite's Fleetwax paste, a hard paste wax that always comes out on top when Powerboat Reports tests all the waxes. Don't get those compounds at your boat store... you can get them for probably half at local auto supply places, or here: http://www.autobodydepot.net > We use 3M's Super Duty Compound with a high speed buffer. Then we > apply Mcguires Flag ship wax with a orbital buffer. It works very well. > > -Chris A different approach is to clean the gel coat with Comet, using a stiff-bristled brush, rinse, dry and then apply Penetrol, a paint-flow additive. The results are amazing. If you want to spend a little more, buy Marine Penetrol, but I couldn't detect any difference in the results. The shine will fade, eventually, and a yearly recoating may be needed. I have found this to be a really low-cost, rapid method for treating badly oxidized gel coats. Google returns pages of information on the product and its uses. |
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