hello, i need to replace my stripes this year and i have two small gel repairs to do. i also believe in buffing the boat like you do but have never done the middle step. i ve always buffed with rubbing compound and waxed with paste Collinite Fleet Wax. this year i am going to add the polish and glaze stage. my question is, do i do the gelcoat repair after buffing and before polish and glaze? and at what point should i put the stripes back on?
thanks
mike
Nothing is set in stone but you should at least try to bring a decent shine to the gel coat before patching, shaving, filing and sanding the patch. This will tell you and give you a better approximation as to the color match. If you know for a fact your gelcoat matches then just patch, shave, file wet sand and buff..
Add the stripes after the "shine" phase is done, I am assuming 3M type adhesive stripes here, but before you wax the hull. Do wipe the hull with a good solvent/cleaner before applying the stripes though.
If the boot/cove stripes are to be painted on it makes the whole process that much harder as the painted area needs to be sanded for adhesion and the paint should cure for at least three to four weeks before getting a buffer near it or putting tape over it.
My preference in a paint situation is to do all your buffing then tape above and below the area to be sanded, this is the area that will get painted, then sand it, peel of the tape that you "sanded", use 3M fine line for this as it is a film tape and much more durable and resistant to sand paper, and replace the tape with new tape for the painting phase. I also highly suggest 3M Fine Line film tape for any striping work as it does not bleed and leaves perfectly clean lines un-like the blue or neon green tapes that always claim to be "fine line"....
If you have the double Catalina cove stripes (usually blue & silver) you might opt for one slightly wider single blue stripe. I did this on my 310 and it made her just a little different from all the others and a little more perhaps a little more classic. If I could have only gotten rid of that ugly looking hull port she would have really stood out...
If you want to practice with positioning and tape widths you can use 3M long mask blue masking tape. It costs nest to nothing, at Wal*Mart, but will let you experiment for the best location and widths based on your free board for your particular boat..
Single cove stripe..
