This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

[chrisf695]

I've had this stain/oxidation on the side of my boat ever since i bought it thinking it was just oxidation, but after hiring a professional last year to do a full compound, polish, wax this white line is still is not coming out. I've acid wash the boat 4 times since owning it and its never come out. Just this past weekend I've used 3m compound and used finesse-it and its still there. The white line does look more faint after I'm done working the gelcoat... The Boat looks amazing but the dumb white line is still there. I Only have got so much gelcoat left for compounding for a 22 year old boat... LOL.

Any ideas??

 

[ricohman]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

I can't really see what you are trying to remove.
But it sounds like the white line is in the gelcoat so no amount of compound is going to help.
If it makes you feel better, my brothers newer Mariah also shares this problem beside one of the large decals.

 

[chrisf695]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

Yeah i should have taken the pictures before I polished the boat... the white line is more visible before hand. But when you say its IN THE GELCOAT... how does this happen? Anything that I can do to fix this?

 

[robert graham]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

Looks like the water in the lake/river has stained your gel coat...not much more you can do about it...really looks pretty darn good to me!

 

[Georgesalmon]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

Or, IF. I mean a big IF. When the gel coat was sprayed on the mold when the boat was built and IF it was sprayed to thick it could have sagged in a line that might show through to the outside because when gel coat sags it causes a thin spot above the sag. IF that was the case it would be IN the gel coat. The only thing you can do IF that is the case would be to sand it down and respray new gel coat on it. Of course you would have to do all the gel coat because you could never get it to color match perfectly because of UV degradation and water staining, etc. And you need at least 12mils dry about 18mils wet to hide whats underneath. With associated wet sanding and buffing its a HUGE job. Man, that boat looks really nice the way it is.

 

[shrew]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

Very hard to tell from teh pics. Picture #2 looks like fender rash or from a cover rubbing.

 

[r.j.dawg]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

I don't see anything?

Beauty looking boat though.

 

[chrisf695]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

Ok... hope this pic helps. This pic is from before the 3 step process of detailing. Again the boat came out great, but that damn white stain is still showing in my eyes. My dad is telling me its from the past owner neglecting the gelcoat and leaving it in the water. If there isn't anything i can do I'll just leave it, its not that noticeable after detailing has been done. Just gotta keep up on it... Thanks for the reply's!

 

[oops!]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

hi... welcome to iboats...

your dad is partially correct.

while the boat may not have been abused... leaving a metal flake boat in the water will cause UV discoloration.

gellcoat gets its UV protection from its pigment.. clear, that goes over metal flake, has none.

any metal flake boat that is left in the water will have discoloration of some kind... usually, the clarity of the water will determining wither the gellcoat yellows, or goes white.

unfortunately... there is not much you can do about it, short of of sanding off the discolored gel coat and re shooting.,
you may try a 4-6-8-1200 wet sand... then another buff.... but it is unlikely it will change the discoloration

 

[ricohman]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

Now I see it. Its a waterline mark for sure but I think you've done a great job on it regardless for a 22 year old boat.

 

[robert graham]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

Ok... hope this pic helps. This pic is from before the 3 step process of detailing. Again the boat came out great, but that damn white stain is still showing in my eyes. My dad is telling me its from the past owner neglecting the gelcoat and leaving it in the water. If there isn't anything i can do I'll just leave it, its not that noticeable after detailing has been done. Just gotta keep up on it... Thanks for the reply's!


View attachment 169849

O.K., I can see that hazy grey/white water line now!...compounding won't polish it off?....Still don't look bad at all to me!

 

[NHGuy]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

I have a 24 year old boat that had that line...You are going to need to learn to wet sand.
You use a flexible rubber piece that you wrap the sand paper around. Soak the paper, use 2000 grit or 100 grit paper, then compound, then polish, then wax.
Then ooh, la, la. She shines.
Don't worry too much about how much gel you remove unless the color starts to change, it's far thicker than auto paint.

 

[moosehead]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

I see what you are talking about in the first pictures, most likely because my black hull has similar imperfections despite multiple efforts with Rotary applied 3M Restorer Wax, 3M Finesse It, Cleaner Waxes, Finish Waxes, etc. While the slight haze is substantially improved before the above efforts, I can still see it, though others always comment how nice our ten year old hull looks.

Despite my admitted anal retentiveness, I still cannot bring myself to the wet sand next step, which nearly everyone recommends to cut the haze/line. Further, despite the higher maintenance involved on a dark hull, it would be yet another compromise for us to go to basic white. We would probably only do so in a harsher salt water environment.

Your boat looks sharp.

 

[chrisf695]

Re: This oxidation or somthing else?!?!

Thank you for all the comments on my boat, its been a fun but frustrating project. Still have a few issues to sort out with her, but its a great rush when shes going 67mph and the 408sbc is screaming at 5200rpm... Ill have to look more into the wet sanding bit, seems easy enough... But I will say that having the dark hull requires alot more TLC then the white hulls i've had in the past, more waxing and polishing to keep it nice and shiny. If anybody else has any suggestions please post them, and thanks again everybody. Great forum!!!

Just for a hell of it heres a few more pics.