Compound for old boat?

[moparv104x4]

Vertglass

The first step in applying vertglass is to use their compound to remove all oxidation from the gel coat. You use a special white scotch bright pad on a handle with their compound on wet gel coat. As with other systems that work the final product is only as good as your prep work. If you want it to shine all of the dirt, stains and oxidation must be removed before you wash the boat with their nutralizing soap. After it is dry you then apply the vertglass sealer, on my boat we compounded it three times and put 8 coats of the sealer to get it to what you see in the picture. It isn't a miracle brush it on and you are done product you have to follow the instructions and work at it. My boat had an oxidized and faded dark blue boot stripe and it shines like new now. There was also a large circle and left over marks of an obvious different color where the previous owner had on some ugly graphics and the old name. Now the color has been restored back close to new, I will post some before pictures when I get home.

 

[RAD]

Jack,
Presta is the only way to go! I finally decided this season to follow Maine Sails directions and my 30 year old looks better than some newer boats
here's a picture,if you look you'll see where I stopped compounding

 

[david sebastian]

gelcoat or paint and tanin

I have gone the compound the boat and wax the boat way and it helps the results are still not that great for the cost and effort. A friend of mine recommended the Vertglass system that he used on his boat 4 years ago. His boat has a great shine and draws a lot of complements. Last summer we did a test patch on my 1981 Islander B30 and it looked good still this spring. I ordered up a Vertglass kit from http://www.marinestore.com/vertglas-images.html?cart=33285123081434 The results were amazing and while it was far from easy it was still easier than what I had previously tried with unsatisfactory results. It took my wife and me about 2 days to apply the system and we were amazed. The boat looks like it is brand new and every one in the marina wanted to know what we had done to it. For 2 days we had people stopping by and asking about it, they thought it had been repainted. Vertglass can only be used on gel coat if you boat has been painted Vertglass will not work. I do not work for Vertglass but it works. The two pictures on the right are before and the two on the left are after, I did use Main Sail's On and Off trick on the tannin stains.

moparv,
How does one tell if boat is painted or gelcoat? And what is tanin stains? I have a 79 O'day 22 masthead rig and sides badly need refinishing.

maine sail,
So the dingy before photo, the way it 'looks', is that typical of all old gelcoat surfaces? Or has there something been done to it before the photo? To me it looks sort of like fiber glass mat and epoxy?
Thanks guys for all the good information for a first time beginner.

david sebastian

 

[Maine Sail]

maine sail,
So the dingy before photo, the way it 'looks', is that typical of all old gelcoat surfaces?

Not typical if someone had taken even some care of it. That dinghy was left upside down and totally uncovered in my neighbors yard from the early 80's until 2008 when I rescued it. The dinghy was a 1969 model and had been dearly neglected all its life.

Or has there something been done to it before the photo? To me it looks sort of like fiber glass mat and epoxy?
Thanks guys for all the good information for a first time beginner.

david sebastian

Nope nothing was done to the before photo and in fact I took it about a half hour after digging it out of my neighbors back yard. It is just severely oxidized, dirty and moldy gelcoat, just as I found it, after sitting upside down and uncovered for nearly 27years..

I simply washed it with bleach and oxalic acid then buffed one side with Presta Ultra Cutting Creme and a white 3M compounding grade pad. Even severly negelced gelcoat can usually be saved if it is not crazed cracked or chipped..

 

[Felicia]

change course

Gentlemen- I am impressed with all of your persistence in trying to correct this problematic issue between most sailors! I have personally experienced this 'dull' hull and it was never corrected to my liking. I am sorry that I had not signed up on this blog earlier. Thank you for all of your pertinent information. As a female sailor, I enjoy knowing the solutions to boat owning issues. I will continue to learn from all of you!

 

[eds]

I owned a '77 that has been neglected too and one day my wife ordered "Poly Glo" (I think thats how they spell it). I can not begin to tell you how simple it was to use and made the hull look 25 years younger!Most important is it lasted an entire season in the northeast! I highly recomend this product, and its perfect for what you need.
Eds

 

[Tim R.]

The downside I encountered using Poliglow years ago was it did not hold up to fenders. My boat usually lives on a mooring but it was the beginning of the season and it was placed at a floating dock for a week. The fenders rubbed through the poliglow and then it was very hard to feather in 5 new coats in those spots. Especially when in the water. It did not look right until the boat had been hauled and I could remove all coats and start again.

I imagine that the other miracle coatings suffer from the same issue.

 

[alexco38]

Real buffing

Any polymar based stuff, Polyglow, Vertglas etc) will rub off or yellow due to UV.

My neigbour and I did the boat shinning at the same time 3 years ago. He use Ployglow and I used Aquabuff 2000 and wax. He had to redo this spring and mine is still shine.

Here's the steps:
You can get Aquabuff 1000 (course) and 2000 (fine) from fibreglass stores also available at Jamestown Distributors. 1000 to remove bad area, 2000 to shine it.

Use a good quality variable speed angle buffer with 3M buffing wheel to polish the hull and topside according to instruction. Do a small section at a time with fine mist spray of water will help greatly.

Apply Mother's Califonia paste car wax according to instruction to keep the shine.

Apply a thin coat of Interlux wax sealer UV protector.

It'll out shine even brand new boats.

Usually you only need to wash down and apply wax and sealer every one or two seasons.

 

[moparv104x4]

How does one tell if boat is painted or gelcoat? And what is tanin stains?

Tannin stains are the yellow or rusty looking stains on the hull down at the water line; Mary Kate On & Off removes them easily. As far as the best way to tell if your hull has been painted check around the boats trim and hardware for a gap in the color or paint on the part. On some boats it may be hard to tell if it was a quality job.

 

[jackhartjr]

WOW, I did not expect all this! (Just got in from Mobile, AL, gone since Monday afternoon!)
Thanks for all replys!
Now to get my hands on some Presta!
Jack

 

[jackhartjr]

One big question.
Is it possible to use the presta by hand, (I know...stupid question again)...I do not have power out where the boat is?
And if so what kind of pads?
Thanks
Jack

 

[sailingdog]

Can you get a honda generator??? Then you could work with power tools.

One big question.
Is it possible to use the presta by hand, (I know...stupid question again)...I do not have power out where the boat is?
And if so what kind of pads?
Thanks
Jack

 

[Tim R.]

One big question.
Is it possible to use the presta by hand, (I know...stupid question again)...I do not have power out where the boat is?
And if so what kind of pads?
Thanks
Jack

I have had limited results buffing by hand. You really need the speed and consistency of a proper buffer. Sometimes you have to do it by hand because of space limitations. I have found that I can manipulate a Makita to get around almost any fitting.

Dog is right, a portable Honda generator is a good way to supply power. I am hoping you are not planning on doing the topsides though. Proper buffing/polishing takes consistent pressure which would be hard to achieve from a dinghy.

Another option is to rent a slip for a day or two for the electricity.

 

[jackhartjr]

I am on the hard, it is 250 feet from the house, a long way to run a power cord, even if it is a heavy gauge cord.
I wish the Honda was in the budget.
Jack

 

[Tim R.]

If you go the Presta route and you need to buy all supplies and tools you are probably looking at about $300-$400. Renting staging will make the job much easier and faster.

 

[moparv104x4]

Another Plus for the VirtGlass system it is all designed to be done by hand and the basic complete kit is less than $90.00 shipped

Id also advise against 'all the acrylic "coatings"' ... as someday you WILL have to remove them when they 'go', and thats going to be 'gnarley' and painful.

If you take the time to check out the Virtglass website the kit comes complete with a solvent to remove it if you ever have to make any repairs.

 

[RichH]

You DONT want to restore gel 'by hand' as it will take forever and the results will be well 'below par'.
Id also advise against 'all the acrylic "coatings"' ... as someday you WILL have to remove them when they 'go', and thats going to be 'gnarley' and painful. If you dont mind a boat that eventually looks like it has a rampant skin disease - then the 'coatings' may be for you.

 

[gregw]

Wet Sanding

I would wet sand the entire hull using 1000 or higher grade sanding paper. Get a sanding block and a bucket of water. Go over the entire hull, then read up on this board about waxing and buffing.

Greg W.
SlipAway

 

[Yoda]

Lake Country pads?

MaineSail -
I've followed your various postings on buffing/polishing for some time now and you motivated me to purchase the Makita buffer and Lake Country pads. You now seem to recommend use of the black Presta wool pad for gelcoat compound and the 3M polishing pad for ultra cutting cream. Having already purchased the Lake Country foam pads, which of these (color) would you recommend I utilize with each of the Presta products? Can I expect satisfactory results with the foam pads or do I need to bite the bullet and buy the wool pads (with need to buy the spindle adapters)?

 

[Maine Sail]

MaineSail -
I've followed your various postings on buffing/polishing for some time now and you motivated me to purchase the Makita buffer and Lake Country pads. You now seem to recommend use of the black Presta wool pad for gelcoat compound and the 3M polishing pad for ultra cutting cream. Having already purchased the Lake Country foam pads, which of these (color) would you recommend I utilize with each of the Presta products? Can I expect satisfactory results with the foam pads or do I need to bite the bullet and buy the wool pads (with need to buy the spindle adapters)?

The Lake Country pads are very, very good pads but do be careful around fittings as they can be ruined or ripped faster than a wool one. Ask me how I know.. These days I mostly save my Lake Country pads for cars.

I would experiment with pad/compound to see what you get. We went lighter on the pads because that boat was not what I'd call severly oxidized. The lighter polishing grade wool pad with the Ultra Cutting Creme yielded a higher final shine that if we used a compound grade pad but we did give up some aggressiveness up on the low end. I have not used Lake Country pads with Ultra Cutting Creme only Chroma 1500 so I can't accurately comment. My experience on gelcoat, with LC, pads is with #9, Finesse It II and Chroma 1500..

What colors do you currently have and are they the ones with the "dots" that capture the compound?