Gelcoat stains from degreaser. Your thoughts?

Hello All

First post. I am an amateur/weekend detailer. I have learned a lot on this forum but I need some help. I just purchased a 2017 Winnebago Micro Minnie 2106FBS. I spent the day polishing and protecting it with Meguiars Marine and RV line up. A bottle of Super clean fell on the ground and exploded which got all over the back of the RV. I immediately cleaned it off and it already stained the gel coat. It was on the gel coat surface for less than a minute.

I decided to re polish the affected area. I started with Meguiars #45 Polish with a orange lake country pad using my 7424x. No luck. I then tried Mequiars #49 compound and a fresh orange pad and the stain is still there. Final attempt was Meguiars #67 two step, now it started dulling the area. At this point I decided to stop before I do any damage and let me ask the professionals. Pictures are below of what I am dealing with. You can see the stains from the Super Clean degreaser and the dulling from the multiple attempts of polishing out the stains.

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Please guide me on what product to use to get rid of the stains and make it shiny. I am at a loss and need some guidance.

Anyone?

Well, I ordered Marine 31 gel coat one step Compound/polish/wax and also their sealant from Autogeek yesterday. Let's see if better quality product helps. I hate throwing money at a problem, but might as well give it a shot.

Plan on Marine 31 One step with orange lake country and my PC 7424X. Then add a coat of Marine 31 sealant.

Im surprised that polishing wont take it out. From what I would guess is that the SC sucked the polish oils/wax out of the gel coat and polishing will bring it back. Hopefully the Marine31 compound will do it.

How did you clean up the super clean degreaser?

If you did not rinse it off with water and washed the area you got the degreaser on. There is why it's stained the gelcoat so badly. And if you did not wash the area before you polished it. You could have been getting the dried degreaser on the pad and smearing it around.
The problem now is how far in the gelcoat it stained it. I'm don't know what kind of boat you have. And am not familiar with the boat and rv polishes. The thing that comes to mind is to use some kind of cleaner wax. So you clean and polish at the same time. If the gelcoat has a uneven surface it could be helping to use a wool pad or a mf pad so the pad reach in on the finish.

How many passes did you do with the different polishes?
It can be that the gelcoat is extremely hard. So your PC need to be full speed setting and see so you keep the pad spinning.
Test the Marine 31 one step compound and polish with a polishing pad first and see so you get a clear finish first. From there if the finish gets clear you can switch to a more coarse cutting pad. If you still don't get a clear finish with the polishing pad. I don't if you have a soft gelcoat or an extremely hard. If it's soft you test with a finishing polish on a finishing pad from the car polishes. If you don't make to clear it up with that. You have a very hard clearcoat. And you will be adressing it with a rotary polisher and wool pad and compound.

Hope you get it sorted out. And you can get more help from a more experienced guy or gal than me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SWETM

How did you clean up the super clean degreaser?

If you did not rinse it off with water and washed the area you got the degreaser on. There is why it's stained the gelcoat so badly. And if you did not wash the area before you polished it. You could have been getting the dried degreaser on the pad and smearing it around.
The problem now is how far in the gelcoat it stained it. I'm don't know what kind of boat you have. And am not familiar with the boat and rv polishes. The thing that comes to mind is to use some kind of cleaner wax. So you clean and polish at the same time. If the gelcoat has a uneven surface it could be helping to use a wool pad or a mf pad so the pad reach in on the finish.

How many passes did you do with the different polishes?
It can be that the gelcoat is extremely hard. So your PC need to be full speed setting and see so you keep the pad spinning.
Test the Marine 31 one step compound and polish with a polishing pad first and see so you get a clear finish first. From there if the finish gets clear you can switch to a more coarse cutting pad. If you still don't get a clear finish with the polishing pad. I don't if you have a soft gelcoat or an extremely hard. If it's soft you test with a finishing polish on a finishing pad from the car polishes. If you don't make to clear it up with that. You have a very hard clearcoat. And you will be adressing it with a rotary polisher and wool pad and compound.

Hope you get it sorted out. And you can get more help from a more experienced guy or gal than me.

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I got most of dripping degreaser off with an ammonia free glass cleaner to get it off ASAP. Then I got a bucket of hot soapy dish detergent water and wiped it clean. I did not rinse after that. Maybe I should have. Ugggg……..then proceeded to correct the problem. Pictures explain the outcome

The Marine 31 products arrive this week so I will give an update unless someone else has any ideas.....

Test with the Marine 31 products and see where it gets you.

The not rinsing is why it's stained so badly. Maybe you could have saved it a little with rinse. In the future think to get it as wet as possible with water. Spray bottle with water or even toss water on it if no hose is available. Don't get it dry on the surface is the most important to do.

Have you washed it thoroughly after this? Think you have alot of dry surfactans left by the dish soap. Try to keep the area wet for a long time. Hold a soaked mf towel on there or a wet wash mitt and gently go over the stained areas. And try to use warm water when doing this and before you start to polish it again. When you feel it's not more you can do to hydrate the stains. You can test to polishing it. The least aggressive approach first.

Hope you get it sorted out!

/Tony

I had a similar experience recently with bug remover on black plastic rear view mirrors. I sprayed them down, let it sit for a few minutes (mistake), and ended up with what looked like bleached spots. Not bleached white, obviously. But the mirrors are now spotted. You can see the spray pattern, in fact. The bug remover wasn't an AG product, but one commonly sold locally.