Tips For Compound, Polish & Wax

[Captcraig1]

Great thread! I have read through many times and am using it as a guide to restore a badly oxidized (sadly some crazing) blue hull on a '76 Mirage 24. I am using the Makita 9227 and all of the products you recommended but am having trouble with the 3M Finesse It product:

1. makes the polisher jump and hard to handle (tried rpms 1000-2000, applying various amounts of pressure on polisher - using the recommended 3M foam pad).

2. product is effectively removing swirls but is also leaving some cloudy areas of product that streak when I try removing with a microfiber cloth. Continuing to go over it with the polisher/foam pad isn't removing this.

Any extra tips you could mention about Finesse would be greatly appreciated.

CaptCraig

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by Captcraig1

Great thread! I have read through many times and am using it as a guide to restore a badly oxidized (sadly some crazing) blue hull on a '76 Mirage 24. I am using the Makita 9227 and all of the products you recommended but am having trouble with the 3M Finesse It product:

1. makes the polisher jump and hard to handle (tried rpms 1000-2000, applying various amounts of pressure on polisher - using the recommended 3M foam pad).

2. product is effectively removing swirls but is also leaving some cloudy areas of product that streak when I try removing with a microfiber cloth. Continuing to go over it with the polisher/foam pad isn't removing this.

Any extra tips you could mention about Finesse would be greatly appreciated.

CaptCraig

Try the yellow wool pad. The foam pads with light compounds can get to wet and "suction" to the hull. You can also carefully edge the pad but use the 3M backer NOT the Makita one. The Makita one is very stiff and will create hot spots where you have little contact/pad area on the hull. The yellow 3M backer with velcro referenced earlier is much more flexible and will edge better. Just do be careful when edging or you can burn the gelcoat. You can also dry buff it a little more, meaning buff it until it in no longer cloudy but again be careful. Those directions were written for beginners. Finesse It II can be tricky stuff to work with so just experiment a little. This is why I recommend Presta products.. Ultra Cutting Creme on a yellow wool 3M pad will do what Finesse It does only it can often do this in only one step..

Polishing = 3M Yellow Wool # 05713
Backing Pad = 3M Hookit SBS #05717


Ultra Cutting Creme (LINK)

[deniseO30]

ok.. got the hull and boot stripe looking like new... how about the deck? Do I even want to try and make it shiny again? It's a basic creamy chalk like finish now LOL. Odays' weren't pure white btw

[Livia]

We did a compound, polish, glaze, wax job close to these recs and have had so many people asking about it at the boat yard. She looks gorgeous!

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by oomfh

Purchased a factory reconditioned 9227c and when I started the compounding phase today - the polisher immedately began oscillating in speed - particularly under load.

Please tell me this isn't normal.

That is not normal. Set the speed, apply the pad to hull and speed stays the same pull pad from hull speed stays the same. Yours apparently was not properly "reconditioned"..

[harbin2]

I got the same buffer a month ago from Amazon. It runs at a very constant speed, at all speed settings. I had purchased two knockoffs from Harbor Freight. The price was right but both oscillated greatly in speed at the lower speed settings. I returned both. The Makita is a really nice tool - send yours back for a replacement.

[oceanscapt]

Well thought out and knowledgeable article. I printed it out and put it in the Maintenance manual for the crew. It should save a lot of time, especially since we're 145' and 4 decks high.

Thanks for taking the time to give us all a leg up.

[night0wl]

Originally Posted by oceanscapt

Well thought out and knowledgeable article. I printed it out and put it in the Maintenance manual for the crew. It should save a lot of time, especially since we're 145' and 4 decks high.

Thanks for taking the time to give us all a leg up.

Aren't boats that large usually painted...hence making this guide useless

[mrybas]

Forgive me if this has been brought up already, but has anyone used "Aqua-Buff"? I have had a few guys at the marina (the knowledgeable ones) tell me that Aqua-Buff is the only way to compound/polish.....

[Preserved]

I put some effort into polishing and waxing my hull for the first time this spring. With other projects taking priority, I took an afternoon and gave the gel-coated hull an acid wash to remove stains, a quick polish with some auto polish on a foam pad followed with some 3m Finesse It, then Collinite 885 wax. For quickie job it improved the look a fair amount. And I was hoping that it would reduce the stains so next spring I can put more time into this.

One thing that I notice is that the hull (white-gelcoat) stains easier than when it was bare wax-less gelcoat. I've got the vertical grey dirty streaks under each scupper leading to the waterline and the transom has a nasty black swash where the exhaust through-hull. Very unsightly!

Did I not rub the wax out enough?

Safe cleaners to use on wax?