Here's the thing...I enjoy keeping my Catalina 309 in good order by doing my own shaft alignment, fuel filters, oil changes, plumbing, electrical, and on and on. I also enjoy painting the bottom in the Spring and waxing and maybe polishing the topsides.
And during the summer season here on Lake Michigan, I enjoy keeping her decks nice and clean. BUT.....there seems to be no power on earth that will motivate me to wax the shiny portions of the deck and cockpit. Oh, I've done it a few times, but lately I've just said to heck with it.
So I need a plan B. I think. Maybe once a year, or every other year I could do a nice polish on the shiny portions to keep the gleam. MaineSail's tutorial on making gelcoat sparkle is one of the most valuable things I've ever found on the web (with the obvious exception of pornography:laugher ). I followed his instructions to the letter with regard to the right grinder polisher, pads, and compounds and got stunning results on topsides when I needed them.
So I have two questions:
1. Is it a reasonable plan to polish annually or semi-anually, and maybe wax annually to keep the deck and cockpit looking okay?
2. If so, how the heck do I deal with the deck, given that my Dewalt grinder/polisher uses 9" polishing pads? It doesn't seem to be the weapon of choice for getting into corners and working around deck hardware. Should I use my Dewalt with 9" pads for the broader shiny areas and go with 3" pads for the tricky parts? Or, is there another good tool for getting into the corners?
Oh, and would it make sense to go at it with 3M Finesse It and see what kind of results I get before stepping up to a rubbing compound (followed by Finesse it)?
And during the summer season here on Lake Michigan, I enjoy keeping her decks nice and clean. BUT.....there seems to be no power on earth that will motivate me to wax the shiny portions of the deck and cockpit. Oh, I've done it a few times, but lately I've just said to heck with it.
So I need a plan B. I think. Maybe once a year, or every other year I could do a nice polish on the shiny portions to keep the gleam. MaineSail's tutorial on making gelcoat sparkle is one of the most valuable things I've ever found on the web (with the obvious exception of pornography:laugher ). I followed his instructions to the letter with regard to the right grinder polisher, pads, and compounds and got stunning results on topsides when I needed them.
So I have two questions:
1. Is it a reasonable plan to polish annually or semi-anually, and maybe wax annually to keep the deck and cockpit looking okay?
2. If so, how the heck do I deal with the deck, given that my Dewalt grinder/polisher uses 9" polishing pads? It doesn't seem to be the weapon of choice for getting into corners and working around deck hardware. Should I use my Dewalt with 9" pads for the broader shiny areas and go with 3" pads for the tricky parts? Or, is there another good tool for getting into the corners?
Oh, and would it make sense to go at it with 3M Finesse It and see what kind of results I get before stepping up to a rubbing compound (followed by Finesse it)?