Pontoon Polishing - Attn. Mike Phillips

I am looking to polish the pontoons on a new pontoon. The pontoon has never been in the water but is 3 years old so might have some light oxidation from sitting around but I would say it is a category 1 or 2. I have the Marine 31 "How to Detail Boats" book to follow the steps and I just ordered the Rupes Mille polisher. Do I have to be concerned with putting holograms in the toons with this polisher? I have purchased the following which is recommended in the book.

Marine 31 Pontoon Detailing Kit

The pads I ordered with the Mille are:

• Mille Coarse Blue Foam Pad
• Mille Fine Yellow Foam Pad
• Mille Coarse Wool Polishing Pads
• Mille Medium Wool Polishing Pads

​If anything else is recommended, let me know.

Thanks in advance,

Bump...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hammargren

Do I have to be concerned with putting holograms in the toons with this polisher?

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No. Holograms are a specific scratch pattern caused by the single rotational direction of a pad spinning on a rotary buffer.

ONLY a rotary buffer can put holograms into aluminum or paint. Some guys will call other scratch patterns holograms, but there is a difference in scratch patterns and the word holograms is specific to the rotary polisher and the scratch pattern in inflicts.

Just to note - I say pretty much the same thing on page 93 of my book, "How to Detail Boats with Marine 31".


You can put in what I call a shadow-effect which would be micro-marring that shows up as a pattern in paint and on aluminum when using orbital polishers and specifically gear-driven orbital polishers which could include,

RUPES Mille
Makita PO5000C
FLEX 3401

But it would be more related to the pad and the abrasive technology used, and less about the tool however I have noticed gear-driven orbitals do have more of a chance of creating this shadow- effect than free spinning orbitals. This is why you always do what I call a,

Test Spot

Before buffing out all the pontoons on your Pontoon Boat, you start by buffing just a section and after buffing and wiping off the polish residues, you inspect the results. If they look GREAT then you can repeat the process over the rest of the pontoons trusting you'll get the same results. If they don't look great then you'll be GLAD you only buffed a small section. Now you only have to fix a small section.

Also just to note - I talk about using Porter Cable and Cycle, both free spinning polishers for boats in category 1 and not the rotary or the gear-driven FLEX 3401. At the time I wrote this book neither the RUPES Mille or the Makita PO5000C had been introduced to the world yet.




Because the aluminum surface on your pontoons looks to be in category 1, which on the top of page 93 in my how-to book states,

Category #1 = New or Like-New
No visual signs of oxidation, stains, water spots or swirls and scratches


Here's picture

http://www.autogeekonline.net/galler...ontoonBook.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hammargren

I have purchased the following which is recommended in the book.

Marine 31 Pontoon Detailing Kit

The pads I ordered with the Mille are:

• Mille Coarse Blue Foam Pad
• Mille Fine Yellow Foam Pad
• Mille Coarse Wool Polishing Pads
• Mille Medium Wool Polishing Pads

​If anything else is recommended, let me know.

Thanks in advance,

---

I would suggest you try your test spot using the Mille Fine Yellow Foam Pad with the Marine 31 Pontoon & Aluminum Cleaner, which is actually a polish, not a cleaner. Sometimes products are named for optimum search engine rankings, not to accurately describe what the product is and does. :dunno:


Shake the product well, before and during use. Prime the pad with a thin layer of product, then buff a section of pontoon. I'd suggest testing first with a medium speed, like 3 or 4, make like 6 section passes and then wipe of and inspect.

Let us know how it looks.



:)

Just to note....

I'm setting up the garage for my 3-day class. It will take me 2 full days to set up all the tools, pads and product the class will be using on 13 cars.

Autogeek's 3-Day Detail Class - May 4th, 5th & 6th 2018 - Stuart, Florida


Apologies but I'm not going to have a lot of typing time for the forum. After the class on Sunday, I do IDA or International Detailing Association Skills Validation Testing and I have a FULL day of SV testing on Monday. Then I get Tuesday off. By the time I return to work on Wednesday, I'll be very very behind.

So patience please.


:)

Thank you Mike for the detailed response [emoji16][emoji106]


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