1967 Starline Deville - Extreme Makeover

[belcherm58]

Looks like a lot of " fun " to be had here. lol I like to died when I saw the Shamrock had been reduced to masking duty. lol

[sqeekykleen]

Wow what a difference!!! I would love to come down to help with the rest of the boat. Shift work has it's advantages and disadvantages.

[Meghan]

Very big change, XMT seems to like tackling that boat!

[O.C.Detailing]

Wow Mike...if I could afford a trip down there to help you knock that beauty out, I would be in the car already. These are the kinds of details I LIVE for!!!

[Mike.Phillips@Autogeek]

It's a good idea to take at least one day off a week from work and recharge your batteries by resting and relaxing with friends and family. So just to be clear, I'm not working today... I'm having fun relaxing and I'm doing that by buffing on my Starline Deville!

Someone asked me about the 3M Marine Line so I've taped off a section on the back of the boat to demonstrate the 3M Marine Rubbing Compound with a 8" Wool Cutting pad on the Flex Lightweight Rotary Buffer.



Note that I've removed anything off the rear deck that can be removed without too much work to enable me to do the best job of restoring this 42 year old gel-coat. Plus then I can clean up the holes a little and the thread for all the stainless steel screws and re-assemble everything nice and clean.


If you're in the Stuart area, feel free to come on by, I'll be here till about 6:00pm buffing on the boat. Even if you're not working on a boat I would be happy to take a break and show you how to use a polisher on your car or even on the boat, it's all good...

Address is 7744 SW Jack James Drive, Stuart, FL 34997

The garage door is up and the Pirate's flag is flying, so we're pretty easy to find... give me a call my my cell first too, 760-515-0444 - Might not hear it ring if I'm running the rotary, so leave a message.





Some after pictures from the 3M section right after I finish the heavy cutting and work the section up to wax.

[Mike.Phillips@Autogeek]

Here's the results from the compounding step.

I spent a lot of time compounding each square inch, I applied and removed 3 applications of compound with the wool pad. After that I used a yellow foam cutting pad and it seem to dull down the finish, so I re-buffed the entire area again with the wool cutting pad.

Here's the results, the gel-coat is very glossy but if you look at the second picture, it's also very hazy and this haze is the swirls left by the abrasives in the compound and probably also the fibers of the wool pad. You can see that after polishing the DOI is going to increase.

DOI = Distinction of Image. That is how clearly you can see the details of a reflected image.





In keeping within a system approach I'm going to use the 3M recommended Marine Finess-it II Glaze with a 3M Polishing pad.

[O.C.Detailing]

Damn it I want to work at AG...like...badly. Looking really good so far Mike. Keep going! /cheer

[Mike.Phillips@Autogeek]

Finished polishing...

Started with a 3M foam polishing pad (Per Manufactures instructions)




While it was working okay the 8" size pads are just too big for the shape and design of the back upper surface of this boat. So I switched over to the 5.5 Hydro-Tech Tangerine Foam Polishing and kid you not, this is a smooth polishing combo that quickly removed all the haze and brought the gel-coat up to a very high gloss.









Next I applied the 3M Marine Liquid Wax and because I prefer to apply all my LSP's by machine I used the Griot's Garage ROP on the 3.0 speed setting with a Meguiar's W-8006 foam polishing pad.




After applying the wax I came back to my office, uploaded the photos and posted this update. I'm going to go back out to the AG Garage and start cleaning up, I'll take a picture to show you just how much of a mess buffing out just one corner of this boat made and here at work we try to leave the garage cleaner than when we found it. (It's always clean so that's not saying much).

Then after the wax is dried I'll wipe it off and take some after pictures and update this thread.

[belcherm58]

It's amazing how much you can bring that 42 yo gel-coat back with the
buffer. Looks great.

[Mirror Detailing]

man that is impressive. If your up for trying different chemicals at request on this boat...mind test the Meguiars Marine Line #'s 49, then 45, then 56 with the use of the Mirror Glaze pad's they recommend to use?