Oxidized Fiberglass

[Nemo]

Hi,

 

I have a boat which is pretty old and has some dull fiberglass. Anyone ever fixed this and if so wouldn't mind some suggestions on what worked for you.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Nemo

[pikeguy]

Hi,

 

I have a boat which is pretty old and has some dull fiberglass. Anyone ever fixed this and if so wouldn't mind some suggestions on what worked for you.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Nemo

 

This is what i did to my boat, sand it down,90,50,20 sand paper till it looks good no black on it, apply 3 coats of resin to it thats all i needed smoothed it out then paint it

 

got all i needed at CT the have it all there and not a bad price there are 2 different paints one for the bottom thats in the water and one for the top for the sun

get the one that u need and follow the instruction on the can

 

good luck let me know how you made out

[POLLIWOGG]

If its not that old the gel coat will be thin and you might be limited to buffing and polishing. If its older the gel coat might be thicker and you can sand it. Start somewhere where you can experiment with different grit till you get something that works for you. I'd start with 400 to bring up the color and work up to 1000 or higher then buff it smooth.

[JohnF]

What about some of the car wax/oxidation reducers? We used to have lots of choices for bringing car paint back to life without taking too much thickness away.

 

JF

[Garry2Rs]

Fiberglas boats are made from the outside in...

First the mold is sprayed with clear-coat then melt-flake with the base colour is splayed on, then the glass is layered up or the fibre glass chop is sprayed in.

When the clear-coat fades it's pretty well toast.

Some of you might recall I had a boat wreck with my Skeeter on the way to Arizona a few years ago. I replace that boat with an old Ranger that I found down there. It was solid, but seriously sun-faded. I tried various products to restore the finish, but to no avail...In my opinion, you can sand and paint, and that might be okay on a Runabout but on a speed boat or a bass boat, their original high gloss, melt flake finish can't be restored.

Garry2R's

Edited June 28, 2010 by garry2rs

[aplumma]

I asked my auto detailer buddy and here is a link to his answer.meguires 3 step fiberglass restore

 

Be forewarned their is a lot of elbow grease needed to do this and a buffer is a must.

 

 

Art

Edited June 28, 2010 by aplumma

[canadadude]

You can buy armour-all fibreglass restorer at Canadian Tire,it works good then wax after that

[HTHM]

Wet sand, buff and wax. Check out bass boat central.com(?) bass boat restoration for more info.

Aplogies for plugging another site.

[Nemo]

Thanks for all the tips. I grabbed some 3M stuff at CTC. I'll let you know how it works out.

[fish_fishburn]

The 3M products work good. I did my cruiser two years ago and got rid of all the oxidization. If I recall it's a three step process. The first is a cutting compound to remove the oxidization then there is a gelcoat restorer next then the final application is wax. It took me the whole weekend and my arms wee pretty well pooched after I was done, have fun with that.

[bigbuck]

You should be good with the 3M stuff. Make sure you wax it after using the rubbing compound. It's lots of elbow grease but the result will be worth it. If you have a polisher it will be much easier, Canadian Tire has one on special this week I believe.

[IndySKS]

Wet sand, buff and wax. Check out bass boat central.com(?) bass boat restoration for more info.

Aplogies for plugging another site.

 

Yea before you do anything check out the site mentioned above and look up this topic: Basscat7's Post (Fixing Gelcoat). If your boat is just oxidized forget all the other suggestions you have heard about cleaners and other methods. read the post and follow it to the letter.

 

It took me 2 years to get up the nerve to sand my topcap but i did it this spring and it looks just like new and it's over 20 years old.

 

send me a pm if you want to talk details

[aplumma]

Yea before you do anything check out the site mentioned above and look up this topic: Basscat7's Post (Fixing Gelcoat). If your boat is just oxidized forget all the other suggestions you have heard about cleaners and other methods. read the post and follow it to the letter.

 

It took me 2 years to get up the nerve to sand my topcap but i did it this spring and it looks just like new and it's over 20 years old.

 

send me a pm if you want to talk details

 

Kind of a bold statement for some one who has not used the 3M system. You may be getting the same results with wet sanding but the ability to burn thru the gelcoat is much higher using paper. The 3M system uses a lubricant base in their wet sanding process along with chemicals that suspend the sanding particles between rinses. The time were it is better to wet sand is after you have painted something because you need to remove any "paint flashing" and "block out" any minor imperfection. With the blessings of someone who restores boats and cars for a living the 3M products wins hands down for the novice/semi professional to get the restoration they want .

 

 

Art

Edited June 30, 2010 by aplumma

[IndySKS]

Kind of a bold statement for some one who has not used the 3M system. You may be getting the same results with wet sanding but the ability to burn thru the gelcoat is much higher using paper. The 3M system uses a lubricant base in their wet sanding process along with chemicals that suspend the sanding particles between rinses. The time were it is better to wet sand is after you have painted something because you need to remove any "paint flashing" and "block out" any minor imperfection. With the blessings of someone who restores boats and cars for a living the 3M products wins hands down for the novice/semi professional to get the restoration they want .

 

 

Art

OK your right I have never used the 3m system, it could be the miracle restorer you say it is, I will give you that. I was more referring to the other cleaners that were suggested in other posts. Call me cheap but a few dollars worth of sand paper and some water and elbow grease will remove the oxidization as well. My boat was fairly well oxidized to the point it was rough to the touch, I figured the gell coat was gone and I was down to the metal flake but I tried the method mentioned on the other web site and it worked excellent at a very low cost. I got less than $50 in materials in mine and that includes the wax. How much does the 3m kit cost ? Just asking. And I'm certainly no expert but if you burn through the gell coat with 1500 or 2000 grit wet sand paper and doing it by hand ...you need to rethink things.

[aplumma]

OK your right I have never used the 3m system, it could be the miracle restorer you say it is, I will give you that. I was more referring to the other cleaners that were suggested in other posts. Call me cheap but a few dollars worth of sand paper and some water and elbow grease will remove the oxidization as well. My boat was fairly well oxidized to the point it was rough to the touch, I figured the gell coat was gone and I was down to the metal flake but I tried the method mentioned on the other web site and it worked excellent at a very low cost. I got less than $50 in materials in mine and that includes the wax. How much does the 3m kit cost ? Just asking. And I'm certainly no expert but if you burn through the gell coat with 1500 or 2000 grit wet sand paper and doing it by hand ...you need to rethink things.

 

 

Good news all around the 3M product is around $40.00 US for the 3 bottles of product in the system. You are right also that it is tough to burn thru the coating with such a fine paper I have found people sometimes get fed up with the slow results of hand sanding and use a sander to "speed things up". I have see more burned edges from wet sanding than with the 3M system because sanding concentrates the pressure on your fingers which are uneven unless you use a semi soft sponge or blocker behind it. Don't get me wrong wet sanding is a good method to restore paint and with care will produce a great finished product it just takes more skill and attention than the 3M product does.

 

Art