Sign-up: How to Wet Sand, Cut & Buff a 1960 Glastron Fireflight Gel-coat

[johnpingol]

Mike, sign me up.

[Mike Phillips]

Mike, sign me up.

Hi John,

Could you do me a favor and reply to the sign-up thread on our Marine forum?

My goal is to keep the "boat talk" on the boat forum as we work to grow it to become the AGO of the Marine world.


Sign-up: How to Wetsand & Buff a 1960 Glastron Fireflight



Thanks buddy...

[Mike Phillips]

***Update***


At the time of this post we are 28 days away from this project, the first of it's type where our forum members are invited to help wetsand, cut and buff an freshly sprayed gel-coat finish on a classic 1960 Glastron.

Pretty cool in my world....


Anyway, Bert from Ship Shape TV picked me up today to go over to John's shop to check out the Glastron and take some pictures.

I think a lot of people probably think a new paint job and in this case a new gel-coat "job" would be pretty SMOOTH after being sprayed and drying but that's simply not the case and that's what we're going to fix.

Orange PeelJust like an automotive paint job will have orange peel, that is a surface textures that looks like the surface of the peel on an orange, the new gel-coat finish also has this same pebble like texture.

This means the finish has ZERO gloss and reflectivity, it's rough to the touch and it also has ZERO D.O.I.

D.O.I. = Distinction of Image

D.O.I. means how well or how clearly a surface reflects an image. A glass mirror has 100% D.O.I. this boat has zero. We're going to fix this issue by machine wetsanding the surface and then cutting and polishing to restore gloss using Marine 31 products.



Here's some pictures I took with my trusty, dusty Canon today...













These are the overhead florescent lights....




Notice how hard it is to SEE the florescent lights reflecting off the bow of the boat?

This is due to the rough, pebbled texture of the freshly sprayed gel-coat. This is NORMAL and this is why fresh gel-coat MUST be sanded and buffed to create a beautiful looking finish on the boat.






Frame-up shot
I'm take a far show of the corner so you can see what I'm photgraphing...




Close-up of the above shot...




Extreme close-up of the above shot --> Notice the rough texture?





This is a chunk of dirt that landed in the fresh, wet gel-coat and then dried there, stuck in the gel-coat.





Here's a boat next to the cap of the Glastron in the above pictures, the sides of the gel-coat on this boat are smooth...




See how images of the ladder reflect off a smooth surface?




The Hull

















Well that's the project... we'll be filming Ship Shape TV on Tuesday and if needed Wednesday and then on Thursday we'll be doing the complete project starting at 2:00pm

If you've ever wanted to learn how to,

1. Machine sand.
2. Use a rotary buffer.
3. Use a Flex 3401.
4. Use a Porter Cable dual action polisher.

Here's your chance!

[sproketser]

Thanx for the updates Mike ! Lovely pix .

[Mike Phillips]

Thanx for the updates Mike ! Lovely pix.

This is a very interesting project. On our Marine 31 forum this thread has almost 8000 views which indicates to me that there's a lot of interest among online boat owners in this topic.







I'm looking forward to the day when the boat is reassembled and ready to take a cruise in...

[sproketser]

Wish I knew about this Marine31 forum when my late father had his Trojan Boat ! Would ve been much easier to maintain .

[Mike Phillips]

Here's the updated list from our marine detailing forum...



Sign-up List

1. Mike Phillips - Of course I'll be here!
2. professionalpolishing
3. Antti
4. Frank
5. Den
6. Barry
7. Chris
8. Rick - From ChrisCraftCataline.com
9. Kajunstick
10. John
11. Craig
12. Dave
13. Stephen
14. Rick Mennine
15.

[Mike Phillips]

***Update***


As of today, this class is now full. Here's the updated sign-up list from the thread on the Marine31Online.com discussion forum.



Sign-up List

1. Mike Phillips - Of course I'll be here!
2. professionalpolishing
3. Antti
4. Frank
5. Den
6. Barry
7. Chris
8. Rick
9. Kajunstick
10. John
11. Craig
12. Dave
13. Stephen
14. Rick Mennine
15. Paul


My next class will be in September. Once I have the date scheduled in concrete I'll start a new sign-up thread.

[Mike Phillips]

***Update***


Just a reminder for everyone signed-up for this project, it's coming up fast meaning next week!

[RTexasF]

Mike here's the specs on the boat from Glastron.....old brochure. Not all models came with running lights unlike today.

1960 Glastron Fireflite