Thinking of skipping Buff Magic and wetsanding?

[glen e]

great advice from KKYS - I would add that on significant gel restorations the biggest mistake people make is NOT CLEANING THE WOOL PAD. On the first few passes, you are going to pull off a huge amt of dead gel that will gum up the pad and virtually bring all correction to a standstill. When you buy the pads, buy a pad cleaner tool and learn how to use it - every 3 or 4 sq feet of surface done...

[SeaNile]

I agree with cleaning the pad but there has to be a better option out there than $135 for this cleaner. I like it but wouldn't use it enough to justify the $$.

[glen e]

I agree with cleaning the pad but there has to be a better option out there than $135 for this cleaner. I like it but wouldn't use it enough to justify the $$.

What cleaner?

Just the little brush tool for 12 bucks!
Meguiars Professional Pad Conditioning Brush, pad cleaning brush

[Beavis]

Hi this is my first post. But I would be very careful wetsanding any boat unless you know how much gel you have on it.. I worked for Sea Ray boats for 9years on the PI line Buffing and spraying patches on brand new Hulls and Decks because of not having enough gel coat on them from the start.. Not saying this is true for every boat. I would just be careful. We used Buff Magic for years there and I would say it works really great. We would sometime sand the entire hull after coming out of the mold and and work down to 800 or 1000 grit and buff magic worked good.. If you wanted to speed it up some you could use a heavier grit compound and then buff magic after if you had alot to buff out.. Gel coat really is not that thick on boats at all..

[KKYS]

We would sometime sand the entire hull after coming out of the mold .

That's a manufactures quality control issue with the mold.
What boat manufacture was that?

[Beavis]

That's a manufactures quality control issue with the mold.
What boat manufacture was that?

Well it was a little of both. Sometimes we did not have to sand them all. Sometimes the gel , but most of the time it is mold issues like you said and they would rather sand the entire thing instead of fixing the problem. Gel really takes sometime to cure right and we would get it two days after being sprayed and only have it for 8 hours. I worked for sea ray boats building to sport yatchs. The turn around on these boats were 17 days to finish the whole thing

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[Mike Phillips]

Well it was a little of both. Sometimes we did not have to sand them all. Sometimes the gel , but most of the time it is mold issues like you said and they would rather sand the entire thing instead of fixing the problem. Gel really takes sometime to cure right and we would get it two days after being sprayed and only have it for 8 hours. I worked for sea ray boats building to sport yatchs. The turn around on these boats were 17 days to finish the whole thing

Sent from my HTC PH39100

Very interesting.

I worked with a fiberglass parts manufacturer in SoCal when Meguiar's was field testing the Velocity Synthetic Mold Release line which included a series of compounds, cleaners and polishes plus the mold release products.

I was surprised that more attention wasn't given to the molds to make them as smooth and perfect as possible so the part being pulled off of them would be smooth and perfect or close to it.

Really nasty work environment.

[Beavis]

Very interesting.

I worked with a fiberglass parts manufacturer in SoCal when Meguiar's was field testing the Velocity Synthetic Mold Release line which included a series of compounds, cleaners and polishes plus the mold release products.

I was surprised that more attention wasn't given to the molds to make them as smooth and perfect as possible so the part being pulled off of them would be smooth and perfect or close to it.

Really nasty work environment.

Yes it was a nasty environment to work in..Did it for 9 years. The molds would come in nice to start off with, but they were pumping them boats out so fast they would not take the time to fix thing that were wrong. So people end up buying a boat that had around 150 to 200 mold marks fixed on them already and patches sprayed on them. They have windows on the side of the decks about 20- 30 feet long and alot of the times I would have to spray the whole radius because it did not have enough gel on it or had tons of air..

I tell you what I feel so much better going full time with my detailing now..I can breathe...LOL

[Mike Phillips]

I tell you what I feel so much better going full time with my detailing now..I can breathe...LOL

That's one of the things I remember about this shop, the mold release agents they were using smelled nasty and were carcinogenic, very dangerous to work around especially for a livelihood.

I'm not sure of the status of the Velocity line? One thing I remember though was the chemist made it safe for people to work with, here's a description for the Sealer.

Product Code: MV-8301
- Superior sealing power
- Excellent performance in high and low humidity
- Contains no carcinogens
- No foul odor
- Long shelf life- up to 3 years!


I remember the guys really like working with the Velocity versus the stuff they normally used.

[Flash Gordon]

Intresting read

Who carries Buff Magic? What is it, a compound of sorts?