Gelcoat restoration with good results

[500dollar744ti]

No amount of polishing compound, wax or 'gelcoat restoration' product could fix my oxidation issues. After hours of meticulously using these products, I ended up with a gelcoat that looked slightly brighter and was back to being faded/oxidized after a week or so. I saw someone on here post that the best product to remove oxidation from gelcoat is sandpaper, so I tried it in a couple spots..


The results were exciting so I started working..


I worked all day and actually to my surprise, it looks like a new boat. Even my quiet neighbors stopped by to comment on how nice it looks.


I'm half done, going to start on the other side today!

 

[Rickmerrill]

Sweet! What grit or grits did you use, was that wet sanded? Did you do any other finishing after the sandpaper?

 

[Rickmerrill]

Duplicate post deleted.

 

[500dollar744ti]

Sweet! What grit or grits did you use, was that wet sanded? Did you do any other finishing after the sandpaper?

Actually, I did it on a tight budget. I used 220 grit sandpaper on a triangular finishing sander, and cleaned it with lots and lots of acetone. You can see the oxidized part being sanded away as you go and once you get to good vibrant gelcoat you can see the sanded particles change color. When all the dust is the original color and not whitish clear, you know you've sanded enough.

I didn't wet sand it but I did spray it with a good quality automotive clearcoat (from a can) after cleaning. First I tried to sand with a 5" disc sander and found that worked but didn't leave an even finish. Then I remembered I had the finishing sander and now that I tried that, you couldn't pry it away from me.

The oxidation was soo thick that sanding with ultra fine sandpaper would have been pointless. I had to sand pretty deep with the 220 grit in order to restore the color but it sure does look good now.

My supplies for doing the one side were, finish sander ($30 at the home depot), 220 grit finish sander pads ($5), 4 cans of krylon acrylic ultra high quality clearcoat spray cans ($20), and one quart of acetone ($10)

I did waste some supplies trying to figure out what worked best but it still wasn't pricey for the results.

 

[500dollar744ti]

sorry, duplicate post as well.

 

[Woodonglass]

Was it the type of Clear coat with UV Protection? If not, I fear you're going to be very disappointed in a short time. I KNOW you said you tried the buffing and polishing but...Gelcoat actually does not require clearcoat. You'd be much better off with polishing now that you have done the wet sanding to remove the oxidation. Using a high speed buffer with the polish will now allow the polish to bring back the shine to the gelcoat.

 

[greenbush future]

Was it the type of Clear coat with UV Protection? If not, I fear you're going to be very disappointed in a short time. I KNOW you said you tried the buffing and polishing but...Gel-coat actually does not require clear-coat. You'd be much better off with polishing now that you have done the wet sanding to remove the oxidation. Using a high speed buffer with the polish will now allow the polish to bring back the shine to the gel-coat.

I was thinking the same thing Wood, I've never seen clear coat over gel coat before. This should be interesting to see the result in a season or two, if the original poster will share results later on.

 

[jigngrub]

It does look good right now, and if the CC starts peeling off in the future the OP still has his trusty sander.

 

[500dollar744ti]

Was it the type of Clear coat with UV Protection? If not, I fear you're going to be very disappointed in a short time. I KNOW you said you tried the buffing and polishing but...Gelcoat actually does not require clearcoat. You'd be much better off with polishing now that you have done the wet sanding to remove the oxidation. Using a high speed buffer with the polish will now allow the polish to bring back the shine to the gelcoat.

Yes, I made sure to buy the more expensive clear coat that claimed to have UV protection and won't turn yellow, I guess we'll see how good it is. I tried to buff the gelcoat first and I went to town polishing and polishing and polishing and though the color came back it just didn't shine like I wanted. That's when I tried the clear coat.

And like jig said, if it doesn't work out, I still got my sander

 

[Woodonglass]

Like I said, polishing does not work very well on Gelcoat before you sand away the oxidation but...after you wetsand the oxidation and get down to good Fresh Gelcoat polishing will bring back the shine and Clearcoat is not needed or desired on a Gelcoat finish. Clearcoat is normally used on a Painted finish not on Gelcoat.

 

[airdvr1227]

Did you sand the white gelcoat as well. or just the color?

 

[redneck joe]

what if you left the clear coat on since you already did it, then sand the other side but do the polishing/buffing only. Wait and watch?



you can be our controlled experiment...

 

[500dollar744ti]

Like I said, polishing does not work very well on Gelcoat before you sand away the oxidation but...after you wetsand the oxidation and get down to good Fresh Gelcoat polishing will bring back the shine and Clearcoat is not needed or desired on a Gelcoat finish. Clearcoat is normally used on a Painted finish not on Gelcoat.

I understand what you are saying. I already did try to polish and wetsand the gelcoat further after initially sanding it BEFORE clear coat. Sanding and polishing ONLY was my original intention. I spent most of the day sanding away the oxidation, then trying trying to polish and wetsand it for a shine from the gelcoat only. This is what I WANT as I hate clear coat and paint in general, I much prefer working with gelcoat only. There was so much oxidation that by the time the color started coming back, I had sanded almost completely through the red gelcoat. I could see it getting thin in spots and made the decision to stop all sanding as I didn't want to loose the color.

The problem is that I was able to get the color back (with polishing/wetsand) but it didn't shine, that may be due to how much had to be sanded away, I don't know for sure. I considered my options and decided I would try a quality spray clear coat since I would just be doing the colored red/black part. If it doesn't last, I'll be sanding it back down and probably applying new gelcoat to the colored areas to thicken it up.

Did you sand the white gelcoat as well. or just the color?

I did lightly sand and then polish the white gelcoat but didn't do anything more to it.

what if you left the clear coat on since you already did it, then sand the other side but do the polishing/buffing only. Wait and watch?

you can be our controlled experiment...

In the second picture here you can see what it looked like after wetsanding and polishing, the color returned but little to no shine. I tried hand polishing, buffer polishing and random orbital buffer polishing. The portion to the right is unsanded, unpolished, the middle portion is unsanded but polished, the left portion is sanded and polished.

 

[Woodonglass]

What kind of buffer, and what kind of polish?

 

[JaCrispy]

Looks great! Something about red gelcoat. My boat was just as bad, I used 400 to 2000 by hand then buffed a little to make it a 15 footer. Here's some before and after pics, I plan on doing a thorough buff on the whole boat over the winter.

before
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n248/Jeekinz/Imperial V220/2.jpg

after
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n248/Jeekinz/Imperial V220/IMG_6744.jpg

 

[500dollar744ti]

What kind of buffer, and what kind of polish?

One is a Ryobi random orbital buffer, the other is just the high speed type you attach to a high speed drill or angle grinder. I tried a couple different polishes, one was a Meguires one step marine polishing compound and the other is Meguires Flagship premium cleaner/wax.

 

[Axkiker]

Plenty of boats and watercraft come from the factory with paint. I wouldnt be as much worried about having clear coat as I would be about using a quality product. If you used good stuff I wouldnt worry at all.

Now with all that said I am definitely a fan of keeping gel coat finish if possible. I feel its a tougher more durable coating. So if you gave restoring the gel a shot and it didnt work out I feel you took the next most logical step.

 

[500dollar744ti]

This is the exact product I used for the clear spray.

 

[Woodonglass]

Like I always say, It's your boat and you're free to do as you see fit. If it works for you and you're happy with it then that's all that matters. However for future reference to those that may come along and read this post it should be stated again that ClearCoat is typically not applied to Gelcoat. There are inherent problems for the future that occur from using it. As you stated you did use an aggressive grit to wet sand your Gelcoat and may have sanded it down to a thin state. Thus the use of ClearCoat may be warranted. The Polishes you used are good products but the Polishing tools could have been better IMO. The standard polisher used for Gelcoat finishing is a VS

similar to this one. (Harbor Freight $30 bucks) which will be much more effective in bringing back the shine. Once Gelcoat becomes heavily oxidized it is very difficult to bring it back to it's original high gloss shine but it can be restored to a much better state with a LOT of work. That's the problem. It's a LOT of work and effort and sometimes the results aren't the best no matter how much effort you put into it. That's why the Vaseline Rubs and the other Quick Fix's are so prevalent. The problem with these fixes are once they are applied then trying to Re-Gelcoat the boat is almost impossible unless you completely remove the old gelcoat down to the glass. I do admit your results look pretty darn good and I hope they have longevity for you. I hope that product does not crack and peel after a season or two. Please keep us posted on your results. That's what this forum is all about.

 

[500dollar744ti]

I went ahead and finished the rest of the boat. There's only clear coat on the colored areas. It may be unconventional but it does look good, we'll see if it lasts.