boat detailing flex 3401

[buckeye24]

can you still come close to the same reulsuts on boat detailing with a flex 3401 vs rotary am talking bout time wise labor wise the out come of the gel coat as well

[Mike Phillips]

can you still come close to the same reulsuts on boat detailing with a flex 3401 vs rotary am talking bout time wise labor wise the out come of the gel coat as well

Yes and no.

It depends on how severely oxidized the gel-coat is. Severe oxidation goes INTO the gel-coat not just on the surface. This means in order to fully remove it you must grind off a lot of dead, chalky oxidized gel-coat and that means using a rotary buffer.

And a rotary is always faster than an orbital for removing material, be it gel-coat or paint on a car but the problem is you leave holograms.


For light oxidation then the FLEX 3401 will do the job without inflicting holograms.


In reality, if you're going to buff out boats part time or full time you want BOTH types of tools.

[Mike Phillips]

I'd recommend reading the below article and if you're going to buff out boats, either part time or full time then get my book and read it. It is the most and actually the only book on this topic that goes into IN-DEPTH detail on the topic of restoring neglected gel-coat boats.


Holograms in gel-coat boats by Mike Phillips



What do I mean when I say in-depth? Check out the index pages, I included them to show just how in-depth the information shared is...


Paperback book - How To Detail Boats With Marine 31 by Mike Phillips






It's no coincidence that car guys also tend to be boat guys!

The two hobbies go together well when it comes to having fun and also when it comes to detailing and maintaining both cars and boats.

This how to book contains more in-depth information on boat detailing than any other book ever written on this topic. This is without a doubt the most complete and information rich how-to book I've ever written. (I have 5 paperback how-to books in print and 3 ebooks available).

This paperback book on how to detail boats goes over every surface of a boat both inside and out. It also covers every conceivable condition a boat is in with specific steps for correction.

It covers all these tools,

Flex 3401
Flex PE14
RUPES BigFoot 21
RUPES BigFoot Duetto
RUPES TA50
Cyclo polisher
Porter Cable 7424XP
DeWALT 849X
Makita 9237CX2
Griot's Garage 6" DA Polisher
3M Air DA Sander

Working by hand
I know most people start out working by hand so I included hand techniques for every topic.


Plus all the pads, brushes and sanding discs to use with the above tool.

Instead of typing out all the topics covered in this book I've simply taken pictures of the index which shows you just how in-depth this how to book truly is...
















Many of the topics covered also apply to car detailing so it's a valuable resource even if you don't yet own a boat.

If you're familiar with my writing style in the forum world you'll find the same style of writing in all my how-to books. That is I explain in simple terms how to perform a process plus why you're performing it and it's a combination of including both types of information that helps you to do the best work possible.