# HOW I RESTORE FADED/OXIDIZED GELCOAT



## jonny (May 1, 2007)

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I recently posted a pic on another thread of the gelcoat on my 16 year old skiff. This filled my inbox with multiple inquiries. So after responding to several. I figured it might be helpful to do a thread on this. And since I'm lazy it's a whole lot less typing to do it once. During one of these inquiries I learned that some of these better "shine" experts. We're charging upwards of $1000 for a small skiff like ours. Rest assured anybody can achieve these same results with a modest investment of about $125-200. And that investment can do multiple boats and cars. You too can get this kind of shine.


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## jonny (May 1, 2007)

What I would like to cover is the most common gelcoat issues- scratches,oxidation and routine polish/buff. Keep in mind I am by no means a expert on this. But I have this bad habit of buying neglected boats for cheap. Then spending lots of hours and money to bring back to life. I'm on boat number three of full blown restoration. So I do have nearly a couple of decades of experience. And these techniques have worked well for me. Feel free to add to this. It will not hurt my feeling or offend me


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## jonny (May 1, 2007)

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To start with here are the tools you will need. Dependant upon your particular situation more or less may be needed.
High speed buffer-with various wool pads(optional if yours is in good shape)

Dual Action buffer/polisher- with foams pads

Heavy cutting compound

Polish/cleaner

Very fine wet/dry sandpaper-800-1000-2000 these can be found at pro auto paint suppliers


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## jonny (May 1, 2007)

The basic premise behind polishing anything. Is to work from coarse to fine. You cannot fix faded gel by just a polish. I've seen plenty of boats that have the "shiny chalky" look
Let's start with deep scratches. Most gel is sprayed between .020 to .030" thick. If gel is sprayed any thicker. It will be prone to spider cracking. Since it has no reinforcing material and is brittle. But this leaves us with enough gel to take care of a lot of scratches. Let me share a actual real world problem I had with my old 07 Lostmen. I bought from what had to be the cheapest bastard ever. He was a millionaire from Chicago and cut corners wherever possible to save a dime. I could start another thread on this alone. But for this thread I will stick to his tongue jack scheme. As most of you know Ramlins have their jack further back than most. This allows you remove the tongue. Well the jack failed instead of replacing it with the one that was on it. He went to WallyWorld and got a cheap one. This one did not bolt up to the welded on bracket. So he put it behind the bracket closer to the boat. Well when you crank the jack. The handle would hit the hull. This put many half circle scratches into the gel. Some of which were deep. By wet block sanding with 800 to 1000 to 2000. And then buffing and polishing I was able to make these just disappear. Do not be scared to wet sand gel with fine grit paper. It will go slow and leave the surface with a smooth but dull finish.


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## devrep (Feb 22, 2009)

If it is badly faded it will fade again in a year or 2 with just compounding. It needs to be wet sanded if it's really bad. Ask me how I know.


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## jonny (May 1, 2007)

Devrep you beat me to it. I had to eat some lunch. But yes that's kinda what I was referring to with the shiny chalky look. You have to do a wet sand if you have oxidation. It may be possible with a heavy cutting compound and a high speed buffer. This is a lot of work and makes a huge mess. The only time I do not wet sand is when it's a textured surface like molded nonskid. This is best accomplished with the heavy wool pads. But any smooth surface I wet sand. As you go through the wet sanding process. You will literally begin to feel it get smoother and smoother. I know it may sound crazy to sand it. But this is not your normal 80 grit. When you get to a wet 2000 it feels like notebook paper.


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## jonny (May 1, 2007)

Ok you should have a nice smooth slightly dulled surface at this point. If you do have any irregularities left in the finish. You need to go back and address them with sanding. The polishing will not fix them. If not you will end up with nice shiny scratches☹. From this point forward you are looking to polish just outer surface. Not removing gel to fix scratches. If you are starting at this point with lightly aged gel. You can skip the cutting compounds and buffer. And just use the DA polishers with pads. This is where I use the 3M product pictured above. It's kinda like a two in one. The pads are your abrasive at this point. Just like sandpaper you start at coarse and go to fine. By the time you are using the fine pads. You should have beautiful shine. That will last a very long time. Since you have addressed the issue that caused the faded look. And you conditioned and protected the surface. Just routine cleaning and waxing is all that is needed.


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## jonny (May 1, 2007)

During this process do not over look a lot of the plastic on your boat. Things like rub rails, toe rails, spray rails, ect. Will take a very nice polish. This is best done from my experience with a buffer and wool pads. You use the side of the wool pad. Also I got few questions about the actual tools. I had a very expensive name brand buffer($189) that went south after a few years. So I figured if what is considered the good stuff is shiat. I might as well look into the cheaper stuff. I read a lot of reviews at Northern and Harbor Frieght. And settled on getting them from Harbor Frieght. A place I usually avoid when it comes to tools. I have been nothing but pleased with them. I have worked them hard and long(HOT!) for over 8 years with zero issues. The buffer I think was around $80. And the DA was just $60 or 70.
A word of caution with the buffers. These things are very very strong with lots of torque. And they keep spinning at high speed for several seconds after you cut it off. Be very careful around things that may grab. Like when I was buffing the CC on my old Mako 1550 inshore. It grabbed my GPS cord wrapped up and nearly ripped three fingers off. There was more blood on my deck than a sport fisher.
I hope this helps some of you guys with your faded glory


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## POCtied (Oct 19, 2016)

good advice on the rotary buffer, they are no joke, go easy at first as you can burn through with them quite easily


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## CodyW (Jan 26, 2016)

Glad you made this thread. Now I have a good idea of what needs to be done.


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## jonny (May 1, 2007)

It really is easy. The high speed buffer is the only tricky part. If you ever seen a bad detail job on a car. That had swirls in the clear coat. That was someone who didn't know how to operate a buffer. Now the dual action polisher is much more forgiving. It makes swirls a thing of the past. And can usually clean up any swirl marks in clear coats.


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## Limp Shrimp (Aug 23, 2015)

Jonny, I was one of the people who inquired about the Jonny shine... I wasn't brave enough to wet sand my boat, but I did stumble up on the display at HF.. They have everything you need for about 150$ so I gave it a go... They have a buffer for $40 and the pads were on sale for 7-8.. It was a lot of work, but it came out really nice and also gave me something to do... I can see why I was quoted 800-1000 though, I spent three days cleaning and waxing and I'm still not completely done... If you look to close at a boat, there's always one more thing to clean or fix!

BTW... Thanks for taking the time to post, it saved me a pile of cash!


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