Boat Gel-Coat Oxidation - Before and After

[Mike Phillips]

Hey Mike,
Nice work! I have a next door neighbor that just bought an older sail boat, the exterior surface is pretty oxidized. I've never buffed out a boat before, what would you suggest for machine, pad and product to tackle that? Any danger from going thru anything like on car paint?

Thanks,
Tom

The gel-coat portion of a fiberglass boat is the pigmented portion, usually the exterior shell. When a fiberglass boat is made, after the mold is prepped the first thing they do is spray in the gel-coat, (the pigmented portion of the polyester resin), this tends to be fairly thick, after all the mold is coated with the pigmented gel-coat they'll start adding the varies glass weaves and structural support for the design of the hull, anytime resin is used at this stage it's not pigmented, it's just the outer layer that gives the boat it's beauty get gets the pigmented resin called gel-coat.

That all said to point out that unlike a clear coat finish on a car that is very thin, the gel-coat portion of a boat will tend to be fairly thick. Thick enough that buffing through it would be my last worry.

When boats are extremely oxidized what you want is an aggressive compound to basically work like liquid sandpaper and enable you to sand off or technically, compound off the dead, dying gel-coat resin to uncover fresh, bright gel-coat underneath.

After the heavy compounding, then you would polish using a less aggressive polish and after you've reached the level of appearance quality you're looking for then seal the gel-coat with a good wax or sealant.


The compound I used in the above work was a lab sample I was testing for Max. Behind the scenes Max and I have been working on a new Marine Line and part of this project is testing products and this was a continuing test of one of the compounds after some tweaks were made to the formula. It has a long buffing cycle and easy wipe off but most imporant... it's fast cutting and that's a characteristic most people are looking for when they're working on really neglected gel-coats.

Sorry to say it's not available yet to purchase yet but stay tuned...


If you need an aggressive that will chew off dead, oxidized gel-coat, then the Pinnacle XMT #4 works really well but you do have to come back and remove the swirls it leaves behind as it is literally rocks in a bottle type product. (Be very careful anytime you use this on a clear coat finish).

Meguiar's and 3M also make very aggressive compounds for removing oxidation and you can find a list of compounds on our new marine website here,


Boat & RV Gel coat Polishes


Generally speaking, Marine Compounds are MUCH MORE AGGRESSIVE than automotive compounds because,

A: People that buff out boats want a fast cutting compound

B: The gel-coat, as explained above is thick so it's safe to use an aggressive compound.

If you're working on a neglected gel-coat finish, besides a fast cutting compound you're also going to need a rotary buffer and a few wool cutting pads and a pad washer will make the job cleaner and faster. When I buffed out just the bow of my boat I cleaned by pad in the System 2000 pad washer probably 6-8 times as the pad quickly loads up with dead, oxidized gel-coat and compound residue.

I also used a steel spur but first the pad gets cleaned in the pad washer and then the fibers get fluffed using the spur.

[dreamps]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOO oooooooooooo a new marine line compound))))) I like!!!!!!!!

[Tom Weed]

A big thank you Mike, that was exactly what I was looking for, and then some!

[Perfections]

Mike thats a great turnaround...about how many passes per section did that take..if your able to say at this point. Also if you guys need another "tester" you have my address lol!