Chrysler Sailors Forum

Just my .02 because I've painted, restored and polished many cars, but not as many boats...

I don't know why you'd use Windex instead of water. All you're doing is what we call "color sanding" on cars.

I would wet sand with 600 and then 1200. In some cases I do a final pass with 2000. Then I use a good polish and power polish it. If you want smooth as glass and beautiful shine that will do it.

Gelcoat is softer than most paints, so you may get away with 600 and then polish, but I'd still go to at least 1200.

Experiment with polishes to find what works best for you and remember that the buffer will dry it out. When it gets dry, just mist a bit of water on the surface and keep polishing.

A final note: Having done this on cars and a Hobie 18 and gotten excellent results, I think I'm going to paint my C26. Color sanding and polishing is just too much work for that much surface area.

Had an car guy tell me the same as tgentry's post. He does boats as well, and I'm going to call him for a price this winter. Like tgentry said, that's a lot of work !

All I did was 3M marine compound and cleaner wax and alot of elbow work as I did not have a power buffer and she sat in the woods for 7 yrs.
or should I say the woods grew around her. This pic is after cleaning with 50-50 water and bleach before compound and wax.

I use 3M too, great product!

I have had very good results with polyglo. I would recomend it to anyone, it's worth a try and doesn't take to long, the heavy. Duty cleaner they have also works well, I used a stiff brush with a commercial all purpose cleaner before I started with the polyglo. I wish I had taken before and after pics on the same surface but ... Anyway it's worked verywell for me so far.

I did what lecker did...3M cleaner polish with power buffer... lot of work.. not nearly as much as sanding or painting... I didn't feel it was much of a diff... it was shiny right after I was done.. but a week or so later in the water.. looks like it was nevr done.

I have poly glo but have not used it -- yet...thinking that a pain job ( ugh!) is the only way to get where I want...

also, Ihave to tackle the topsides....powerwashing just isn't doing it... what is being used to polish up the topsides?