Best product for hull refurbishing??

[tgebler]

The boat is on the hard and wrapped for the winter but I am planning projects for the spring.

Can someone recommend the best product for getting rid of the oxidation on the hull of my 2000 396 Aft Cabin. Someone recommended Wizard Turbo Cut Compound & Polish Machine Glaze and another has suggested Meguiar’s M9132 Marine/RV Power Cut Compound and yet a third product is 3M Perfect-It Gelcoat Heavy Cutting Compound.

Which is best or is there another product which someone has used?

Thanks for the recommendations.

[g36]

I use meguire products alot but not the ones you mentioned, I ended up doing a 3 step process with mirror glaze series ultra cut first 105 . Then #7 polish and 26 wax. I like the way it looks very much, I'm sure there's all kinds of thoughts.. I think your going to get all kinds of suggestions ranging from one way to the other on this. You may use the search on here and review past posts on this topic.

[Tireless]

Everyone will push what they use on you. At the end of the day there are lots of products out there that will do the job. You just need to make your own decision.

I can only tell you what I use. You may not need a heavy cut compound and I would be careful with that. I have found that a two step process works great on my 44 CPMY, as opposed to a one step wax/compound mix, like 3M Restrorer or Cleaner waxes. They are a great product, but I get a better result with a two step process.

I compound with a 3M Imperial Compound, purple label. It will cut through the oxidation and the old wax. There is no wax in this product, but there are polishing agents that will assist with the application of the wax. Using a 7.5” variable speed polisher with a 3M wool head is the best way to use the product. Try not to use an orbital with a terry head for this. If you have a bad spot, hit it with compound more than once till you get the results you want.

Start at the slowest setting and then speed up to about 1200 rpm to finish it off and wipe with a micro fibre cloth. You can Google the product and they will show you demo’s on how to use the product and what result you get. This is what most pro’s use up here, the good ones anyway.

My preference in wax is 3M Ultra Performance Paste Wax, however 3M has come out with a liquid wax to replace it. Stupid move IMHO. There is still some paste wax out there, but hard to find. I put this on by hand and remove it by hand as well. You can also use the 3M polishing head which is yellow in colour.

I have found that the Carver gel coat is very porous depending on the year of the boat and can dry out in the sun making it hard to get that great shine, like on the brow. When I get a spot like that I put the wax on the area and then hit it with the polishing head while the wax is still wet. This will heat the wax up a bit and help get rid of the spot. Think of the wax as like a hand cream for your hands.

Good luck with your product choice. Happy buffing.

Greg

[Midnightsun]

You can attempt it yourself OR get a professional in to do the job. I had the entire boat including hard top (except non skid and interior) wet sanded and ceramic coated after haul out this past fall. OMG, like brand new. Costs vary substantially from place to place but I thought the price was very fair @ $3200 cdn. 5 guys working for 1, 14 hr day and another 5 hr day plus 2 1/2 hr travel to site and another 2 1/2 hrs back. It is a FN big boat.

[km1125]

I like a rotary polisher rather than an orbital for cutting and deep cleaning. I think they work faster. For final polish or wax an orbital is great. I bought a cheap variable-speed one from Harbor Freight about 10 years ago and still never burned it up. Came close a couple times though... you could smell it getting hot. Just took a break and had a cold one and worked on something else for a few minutes to let it cool off and then picked up where I left off.

I've always used the regular 3M Rubbing Compound and their Machine Polish with great results, and then follow with some type of wax (lately was the teflon-based waxes). Using the 3M wool pad with the rubbing compound is important, as was the foam pad for the machine polish. I'd keep a squirt bottle of water handy too, to keep the pad wet as things started drying out. That minimizes the amount of product you need... a little can go a LONG way. There were a few places on the hull and bridge where I needed to even use some 2000 grit wetsanding to get things started. This was on a 30 year old hull that was neglected for many of it's first years.

[Helmsman]

Source of the post You can attempt it yourself OR get a professional in to do the job. I had the entire boat including hard top (except non skid and interior) wet sanded and ceramic coated after haul out this past fall. OMG, like brand new. Costs vary substantially from place to place but I thought the price was very fair @ $3200 cdn. 5 guys working for 1, 14 hr day and another 5 hr day plus 2 1/2 hr travel to site and another 2 1/2 hrs back. It is a FN big boat.

Would be good to get updates from you this summer on how you like the ceramic, how it wears, and how you keep it up.

[tomschauer]

If your hull is heavily oxidized (rub your finger on it and it comes up white) you should use a three-step process. A heavy compound, a polish, and then a wax.
Anything from 3m is good, for the last two years I have been using compound and polish from Chemical Guys. It works very well. I have not been impressed with their boat wax though.
Last year I used the chemical guys heavy compound, then polish and finished it off with Maguire's ultimate paste wax. I do believe this car wax lasted longer than any other boat wax at any price I have used over the last 20 or so years.
You do need to be sure to do each step properly and clean your buffer pads regularly if you want a long lasting finish.

[Grafunkus]

The first winter we owned John Buoy, I asked the pro at the marina for a quick lesson. He used Meguire's 67 (I believe). Applied with a polisher, wipe with microfiber cloth. Applied again - same process. Then finished off with Carnuba car wax. It was easy(ish) to do but very tiring. I was able to get a nice shine to the hull.

[czech'd_out]

Marine 31 has some good products that I've had good luck with.