How to wetsand, cut and buff a gel-coat boat

[EXTJosh]

This was awesome!!!

[Mike Phillips]

Here are the final results from a LOT of hard work and teamwork...

[Mike Phillips]

More....




This is the flash off my camera, if you look closely you can see my outline in the hull... (barely)

[FrankS]

Nice work Mike on the post and the pictures!

The guys did a great job as usual.

Chris did a fine job on the motor.

We'll have to see what we can do about helping John get his 1987 Yugo.

[Mike Phillips]

Here's some shots of the products we used...

Marine 31 Products





Flex PE 14 Rotary Buffer & Flex 3401 Forced Rotation and Forced Oscillation Polisher





Rupes TA50 Mini Sander (used as a Mini Polisher)













Porter Cable 7424XP











Rupes for Machine Damp Sanding
And to machine sand the black gel-coat hull, we used the Rupes 5" #3000 grit discs, 5" Rupes Interface Pads and the Rupes Duetto.








The Rupes Duetto 12mm Orbital Polisher or Orbital Sander



Close-up pictures of the new Rupes Duetto 12mm Orbital Polisher



I think this is the the first boat machine sanded using the Rupes Duetto and Rupes sanding discs in the United States? And documented?


I love doing firsts in the industry...

[johnpingol]

Another great experience with Mike and the Guys, I honestly didn't think it would turn out so good. It shows the right process, products and technique yields awesome results. Yugo? No way, more like a 1974 Vega.

[House of Wax]

HO LY crap that is amazing! This has me super pumped to do my boat that I bought used last year this weekend

[Znig22]

This looks great Mike, You and the guys nailed it! Thanks for sharing the knowledge and products with us all.

[Mike Phillips]

Another great experience with Mike and the Guys, I honestly didn't think it would turn out so good. It shows the right process, products and technique yields awesome results.

Thanks for all your hard work John to help with this transformation.

Yugo? No way, more like a 1974 Vega.

Sorry... couldn't help but play that game,

Create caption for this picture....

John
In the background John contemplates his life and thinks about buying and restoring his dream car a 1987 Yugo.

Just to let everyone know, I also took some pictures of this boat outside the next day, will post them as soon as I can.

[Mike Phillips]

This has me super pumped to do my boat that I bought used last year this weekend

Just tackle it step-by-step.


I did some testing on the side of this boat and while we could have just used rotary buffers and the heavy cut compound in the Marine 31 line after testing it was faster, MUCH FASTER to wetsand the hull and then remove the sanding marks.

The water spots in the hull actually penetrated deep into the gel-coat, it was very surprising.

So before tackling the project be sure to do some testing to find the process that works the best for the condition of your boat.