Fiberglass Oxidation

[paulrfrancisco]

This spring I tackled the task of polishing my severely oxidized marroon colored boat that was pink due to the oxidation. After researching this site for recomendations, I came across the postings from MARK24. In his postings, he, or others participating in that thread, recommended to use 400 and/or 600 grit sandpaper and dry sand it, then polish it out.... Well I did this and am happy to report that I had overwhelming success. I wish I had "before" pictures for you to see... FirstI dry sanded it with 400 then 600 grit, then with a 7 inch polisher, used 3M Super Duty Marine compound. With this alone the result were amazing, but I went further and applied a Color restorer using an orbital 10 inch buffer and then followed that with a Meguires Fiberglass polish with teflon and applied this again with the 7 inch polisher... In the end I had I mirror like refplection where before there was no reflrction whatsoever...<br /><br />Thank you for your recommendations. I thought it was kind of drastic, but simply applying the compound alone without the sanding first, had virtually no effect...<br /><br />Paul

 

[Pun]

Re: Fiberglass Oxidation

nice job dude. Where's the pics?

 

[bounder4465]

Re: Fiberglass Oxidation

Just curious..how much did you spend on all of those products? Also, how much time did it take to do all of those different operations?

 

[paulrfrancisco]

Re: Fiberglass Oxidation

Sorry PUN, but never got to take before pics... I should have... Suffice it to say there was zero reflection and a substancial milky tone into the depth of the Maroon Gelcoat... Now it has a nice mirror reflection with virtually no more milky tone... If I can get "after" pics, I'll post them in the next couple of days...<br /><br />As for how long, I worked by myself mostly, and it took almost 18 hours. 3 days about 6 hours per day. I had to buy 3 16oz bottles of 3M Super-duty Marine compound @ $15 each, 1 16oz bottle of Starbright Color restorer @ $13, and one bottle of Meguires Marine Polish with Teflon @ $15. Plus about 10 sheets of 400 grit wetsandpaper, and 5 sheets of 600 grit @ $2 each. I also realized that my 10 inch orbital was wholey inadequate to compound out the sanding job, so I had to buy a polisher. FYI.. Lowes Home Improvement has a 7 inch right angle polisher kit for $79.00. I bought it.. It came with all the components to polish a car, wool and terry bonets, plus sanding disks, etc...<br /><br />Anyways, Basically I sanded with 400 grit dry, in about 2' x 2' sections at a time. I sanded vertically, then horizontally tewice each, the same with the 600 grit dry, then wiped it off and compounted it out, then moved to a new section. Once I finished a side, I color restored it and then polished and then wnet to the other side... Lots of work, but the results were very satisfying... Be carefull to not sand too much to go through the gel coat.<br /><br />Paul

 

[code p1mp]

Re: Fiberglass Oxidation

I guess mentioning vertglass would be cruel at this point...

 

[bounder4465]

Re: Fiberglass Oxidation

Wow, you spent a lot of time and $$ on your project.