How to remove oxidation - 1976 Sleekcraft Jet Boat

[Mike Phillips]

How to remove oxidation - 1976 Sleekcraft Jet Boat


How to remove oxidation - 1976 Sleekcraft Jet Boat


Anytime I get questions via e-mail, a PM or a FB message I prefer to invest my typing time where

A: It's easier for me to share links, pictures and videos.

B: More people can read and thus benefit from the information. (no just one set of eyeballs)


The reality is, most people that contact me found me via an article I've written or a reply I've written on this forum. The thing is, instead of figuring out that the whole reason they are contacting me is because they found me via an article or answer I wrote on the forum that they to should bring their question to the forum because not only will that help them.... but it will help a future "them". If I answer everything in a private e-mail or other touch point, no one would find and contact me. It's a cycle or pattern that repeats as long as everything is shared in the public domain.

The above is kind of wordy but re-read it slowly and it will make sense.


So I get an e-mail asking,

Hi Mike...

Say I bought a kit buffing kit from autogeek in anticipation of bringing my newly acquired 1976 Sleekcraft Jet Boat back to life.

I have read your book and viewed a few of your online videos. Question...

If I sent you some pictures of the condition of my boat would you give me your opinion what I should start with first...heavt cutting or Wet sand... Etc.

Great questions Mike

Here's the pictures you sent me,



Here's the boat - very cool boat by the way...




Here's the oxidation...














First - this is what's called a large metallic flake gel-coat finish which is popular with boats from the 1960s and 1970s.

Because there is an actual "flake" in the gel-coat - YOU MUST BE VERY CAREFUL when compounding or worst-case scenario, sanding on this kind of finish and you will sand INTO the flake. You don't want to do this as not only will you expose it and cause worse oxidation down the road but the surface will no longer be smooth but coarse as you can feel the flake.

The oxidation in the pictures doesn't look too bad as I've seen worse but there are areas where the gel-coat has turned white.

If this was a NON-metallic finish I would recommend machine sanding. Because it is a large flake metallic finish I would start with just compounding and foam pads.

If it were my boat and out in the garage outside my office I would try,

1. FLEX 3401
2. RUPES 7" Blue Coarse Foam Cutting Pad
3. Marine 31 Captain's Compound/Polish

Then chemically strip and the apply the new GYEON Marine Gel-Coat Coating.

The above is a portion of what I teach in my 2-day boat detailing classes and the boats always look BETTER than new.

















Hope that helps and feel encouraged to join our forum, this is where I answer questions. Email and Facebook messaging are okay, but the forum is a LOT more powerful. (think about it - it's how you found me in the first place)


Click here to join the AutogeekOnline.net car detailing discussion forum - THE best forum on the Internet

[Mike Phillips]

Here's the results from what I teach in my boat detailing classes.

This isn't no mock-up or fake detailing....


Pictures & Comments 2019 Boat Detailing Class at Autogeek with Mike Phillips


Before - Test Spot




After






Class is every year in February

[Sleekcraft Man]

Thanks Mike....I watched some of the class videos on FB when you guys did the blue boat...I will start with your recommendations and see how it goes.

[RTexasF]

Sharp squirt boat! Show us how it came out after the hard work.

[Sleekcraft Man]

Mike,

Getting ready to do this...just noticed your recommending a piece of equipment I don't have... a Dual Action unit...I have a single action only...what difference will this make?

[Mike Phillips]

Mike,

Getting ready to do this...just noticed your recommending a piece of equipment I don't have... a Dual Action unit...I have a single action only...

what difference will this make?

Yes. In one of the above posts I wrote this,

If it were my boat and out in the garage outside my office I would try,

1. FLEX 3401 <--- this is a gear-driven, dual action polisher
2. RUPES 7" Blue Coarse Foam Cutting Pad
3. Marine 31 Captain's Compound/Polish

I'm assuming when you say you have a single action you mean a rotary buffer, which only spins a buffing pad in a single direction. This is the norm for the boat detailing business and even for a lot of car detailing business.

The rotary buffer offers a LOT of power but because it only spins a buffing pad in a single rotating direction it will leave swirl scratches in the gel-coat called holograms.

I explain what holograms are and the problem they cause in gel-coat boats in this article and I'm pretty sure I cover this in my boat detailing book.


Holograms in gel-coat boats by Mike Phillips


Besides leaving the gel-coat MORE OPENED UP - holograms in such a beautiful boat like yours will also look bad. I cut my Sanger a couple times with a rotary but I would NEVER finish it with a rotary. It looked way too cool to be filled with holograms.





You could cut it or in other word compound the gel-coat with a rotary and then finish out with a less expensive dual action orbital polisher like the Griot's Garage 6" ROP using the same type of pad and compound I list above. (get a smaller RUPES blue foam cutting pad).

Be wary though - like I mentioned above I a previous post - with a large flake gel-coat finish you're buffing ON the flake. A rotary can remove a LOT of gel-coat really fast.

[Mike Phillips]

More....

Here's an article I wrote that is LOADED with information and a very good video that although on a car, the techniques shared for doing a Test Spot and for doing Section Passes will apply to a boat.


Here's what you need to get into machine polishing - Recommendations for a beginner by Mike Phillips


This one,

Griot's Garage 6" ROP - Standard cord

Griots Garage 6 Inch Heavy Duty Random Orbital Polisher - HD Cord - 25' Heavy Duty Cord already pre-wired






This DA polisher comes with a 6" backing plate, (not a good idea in my opinion for people buffing out cars), and the tool has the power to rotate and oscillate larger pads.

[Sleekcraft Man]

Mike thanks for the very informative and thorough response. Summarizing what I believe are your suggestions....

Don't use an rotary on my boat, use a DA such as Griots along with the 7" foam pad and the Marine 31....reasons for this are listed in your replies along with more details in your Tutorial.

[Mike Phillips]

Mike thanks for the very informative and thorough response. Summarizing what I believe are your suggestions....

Don't use an rotary on my boat, use a DA such as Griots along with the 7" foam pad and the Marine 31....reasons for this are listed in your replies along with more details in your Tutorial.

Yep.


In a perfect world, instead of using the 6" backing plate that comes in the box with the Griot's 6" DA you would purchase a 5" backing plate and this way you can use smaller 5.5" pads. Smaller pads work better on these types of tools.

You can use the 6" backing plate and the larger pads but here's the deal, if you do this means you go down the road of building up a supply of large pads. Down the road, you might want smaller pads and then you'll have to re-invest in the smaller backing plate and smaller pads.

I've been doling out advice online for detailing cars and boats since 1994 (documented), that's 25 years. I've been giving the same advice above to you to others since Griot's introduced this polisher with the large backing plate.

I've suggested to Griot's to stop selling this tool with the 6" backing plate and either sell it with a 5" or without a backing plate at all but there's been no change so that's all their business.


The tool is called the Griot's 6" Random Orbital Polisher but the 6" has nothing to do with the tool, it only references the size of the backing plate. The reality is, this is a 8mm free spinning orbital polisher. It's an 8mm free spinning polisher all day long no matter what size backing plate or pad you put on it. A better name would be,

The Griot's 8mm free spinning random orbital polisher


This applies not just to Griot's but also the Porter Cable, the Meguiar's MT300 and a host of other tools that are all at their core a copy of the Porter Cable as they are all 8mm free spinning orbital polishers.


Out of all these types of tools, that is 8mm free spinning random orbital polishers, the Griot's has the most usable power and the best warranty. There are cheaper versions on the market but I don't believe there's a better tool in this category than the Griot's version. You get what you pay for kind of thing.

If you want to get this tool and go ahead and upgrade to the smaller backing plate so you can turn and churn smaller pads here/s the links to what you need for removing the oxidation off this boat.


Backing Plate
Griots Garage 5 Inch Vented Orbital Backing Plate

RUPES 6" Coarse Blue Foam Pads
Rupes 150 mm (6 inch) Blue Coarse Foam Pad - $12.00 each.


I don't know if Customer Care makes a package deal if you buy RUPES pads in quantity, I don't think they do, has to do with MAP pricing from RUPES. So the are a tick on the spendy side compared to other pads. But this I know - they work great with the compound I recommended to remove oxidation and restore a clear, high gloss finish on gel-coat.

Here's the deal though - as pads become wet with product, (called pad saturation), they quit performing as intended. In the case of a foam cutting pad they quit cutting. Wet pads also don't rotate as well as dry pads so as you work around your boat it will progressively take longer and longer with less pads.

If you're not in a hurry, I would suggest getting 3-4 pads, the Captains Compound, the polisher and the 5" backing plate and do some testing. Report back here with what you're seeing. My experience is this recipe will work great. But just in case something goes wrong I would hate to see you load up on the pads. I know for sure the tools and the compound are proven choices. (the BEAST aka the FLEX 3401 is actually the best tool for what you want to do but it's also about $450.00, so the Griot's is the next best less expensive option).


Worst case scenario is you start buffing and if you do everything right but don't get the results you are looking for it could be pad related. I doubt it but because I'm not there in person I have to play Armchair Quarterback.


As for technique - watch the below video. At some point I talk about how to do a Test Spot and then how to do a Section Pass. This is what you want to do when you FIRST START OUT testing this stuff on your boat.

I coined the term Test Spot and wrote the definition for this term for the car detailing industry, same for the term Section Pass - this video does the best job of explaining both out of any video I've ever seen from anyone else that has tried to explain these terms.










Hope that helps.... I'm really looking forward to the after pictures.

Where are you located?

[Sleekcraft Man]

Thanks Mike...again good info...

I am 45 miles west of Phoenix outside of Surprise in Arizona.