Advice on deck of boat

[banjoey]

I have just recently purchased an o'day 22. She is in decent shape. Top side she is a little weather worn.

I have attached some pictures. (Hopefully) and I am not sure of what I should do to remove the dinginess and brighten back up

Do I just do a good remove oxidation (help on this) or a complete sand down and paint.

Also in one of the photos there isa small stress crack.
Advice please.

 

[Apex]

Maine Sail has the go to post for compounding, polishing and waxing. I just recently purchased supplies and will be working on my hull this spring:
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-maintenance/52772-tips-compound-polish-wax.html

For the stress crack, fill in with Marine Tex and monitor for further movement.
congrats on the new boat!

 

[tommays]

The white looks like it will clean up

The blue non-skid looks like it already has a coat of paint and will take a bit more effort

 

[Sandy Stone]

Before you do anything exotic, first try a solution of 1 pint bleach & 1/2 cup Spic-N-Span in 4 or 5 gallons of water. It has worked miracles for me.

 

[banjoey]

Oxidation

Before you do anything exotic, first try a solution of 1 pint bleach & 1/2 cup Spic-N-Span in 4 or 5 gallons of water. It has worked miracles for me.

My dad use to have me clean up old cars with something similar or sometimes just plan ole fashion Comet and a greenie or something softer.

 

[firehoser75]

I would be very careful using an abrasive like Comet on anything. A far better powdered cleaner is Bon Ami. It does not leave scratches like Comet does.
I second following Maine Sail's advice on gel oat care.

 

[Rich (P303)]

Yes... go at the topsides with Mainesails how-to. My 84 Pearson now looks brand new (short of scratches and dings the buffer will not take out). You might have to clean/degrease the non-skid and repaint.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

As mentioned, the nonskid looks to have been painted before as you can see the original gelcoat blue nonskid beneath. To repaint this area, you need to completely sand off the old blue paint, clean it, tape the edges to make a crisp, nice edge and paint it with a nonskid paint. A simple paint to use is Interlux' Deck paint, which comes in blue as well as white, beige, gray, etc. It has grit in it, has a satin finish (you don't want a gloss finish as it is slippery when wet - even if it has grit in it) and it holds up very well under traffic. There are more exotic paints, but you have an older boat, not worth spending an arm and leg on. As far as the cracks are concerned, the only way to remove them is go grind them out, glass them up, smooth the repair with sandpaper or grinder, fair with fiberglass putty and spray gelcoat on the area, wet sand and buff out. Do not use epoxy resin, but use polyester resin. The gelcoat can be sprayed on with a Preval sprayer. The rest of the deck needs to be cleaned very well and then you can use fiberglass rubbing compound on the smooth parts to try to get a shine back. Then wax so the sun chews on the wax instead of the gelcoat. This will slow the return of the oxidation process down.

 

[banjoey]

Thank you for all the advice. This is my first boat and being a computer type, I am not the most handy with tools so I figured this was a good boat to start with. She is very sound, just needs to be prettied up a bit.

Thank you all for your advice. Thank you very much. Please look me up if you are even in the Stockton Delta area of California.

 

[arknoah]

I used some commercial products for boats and while the basic dirt came off, the underlying dullness was still there. I then used one of those Mr. Clean Magic Eraser pads and the dullness and grayness disappeared. I only hope I didn't do more damage with the abrasive, but given that the cleanliness has lasted and it hasn't seemed to draw an excess of dirt during this season, I suspect everything's okay.

The boat certainly looks a lot better than it did with just the boat shampoo and a soft brush or sponge.