37 year old fiberglass boat brought back to life

[imported_smprince1]

I finally finished this 1971 Sea Ray Pachanga for a buddy at work, and it really kicked my butt. I had posted a few intermediate photos in the marine section, but that forum doesn't seem to get much traffic so now that I'm done I hope you don't mind me posting in the Click and Brag.



This boat was 37 years old, had a lot of marring and chalky, faded gel coat. Plus, where the registration numbers were removed there was a significant amount of ghosting.



Process:

Peel off numbers, remove adhesive with Goo-gone and plastic razor.

Wet sand where shadows remained from faded letters/numbers by hand: 300, 600, 1500.

Went at it HARD, for hours. Would have gone way past bare metal had this been a car, left a lot of his boat in my wet sanding water bucket and on the floor of my garage :nervous2:

3M Marine Compound / wool / 2200, multiple passes.

3M Finesse-It Finishing Material / Blue Edge / 1800

Meguirs Flagship Premium Wax



Meguiars NXT Metal Polish on metal parts.



Megs APC 10:1 all cockpit vinyl, then steam cleaned to sanitize as the owner said he found some mouse poop when he took it out of storage.

Hi Temp Rug Shampoo all carpets, nylon brushed, extracted with hot water.



Dressed all vinyl with 303 Aerospace.



On to some pics.



Befores:

During:

Finished:

Certainly doesn't look as good as new .... but much better than the 37 years old it looked when it showed up.



Owner thinks it looks fantastic, so that's what that matters. Personally, I haven't been this tired in a long time :ignore

 

[bigltc]

Nice save! I love the yellow!

 

[imported_smprince1]

Yeah ... but forgive me if I don't eat any bananas for a while as I've seen enough of that color over the last few days to last me a while :chuckle:



Owner had just bought the boat and said he didn't realize how yellow it really was....he thought it was a pale yellow by design.

 

[ZQ8Sonoma]

Incredible job on a beautiful classic!



What's under the hatch?

 

[imported_Dave11]

Excellent.....!



How does it feel to know every single inch of an entire boat.....?



Your one good friend......:hifive:

 

[imported_smprince1]

How does it feel to know every single inch of an entire boat.....?

:

It feels sore and tired, I can say that. :werd:



Thanks for the kind words.

 

[imported_smprince1]

Incredible job on a beautiful classic!



What's under the hatch?

From the owner:



454 4 bolt / 12:5 to 1/ Edelbrock Victor intake / Edelbrock water exhaust manifolds / Holley 850 double pumper / Forged crank and rods / Dual point distributor / Weaver dry sump oil system / Holley electric fuel pump attached to a Berkley jet drive with stainless "A" impeller and hardened shaft - Dyno tuned to 542 horsepower / 480 torque @ 6000 RPM



:chuckle: :shocked :bounce :grinno: :soscared: :wow:

 

[Greg Nichols]

Outstanding!



I really hope you charged accordingly, because you brought that back to life! Having done boats I know how hard they are. I really liked the 3M compound also.



GREG

 

[slick61]

great recovery work on a nice boat... Sea Rays have always been my favorite... the Cadillac of the runabout boats. Sounds like it oughta scoot across the water pretty good, though I shudder to think what gas would cost at the marina...

 

[imported_smprince1]

Outstanding!



I really hope you charged accordingly, because you brought that back to life! Having done boats I know how hard they are.

Thanks for the kind words.



I charged, but I tried to give the owner a break as he is a friend from work and I did want the job as I didn't have a lot of experience with boats. It was a lot of work, but it's always satisfying to see a customer get excited about the results.

 

[Greg Nichols]

^^^

I too like the response from customers. I also like the response from my wife with the paycheck LOL

 

[imported_smprince1]

What's under the hatch?

 

[Todd@RUPES]

Thanks for the kind words.



I charged, but I tried to give the owner a break as he is a friend from work and I did want the job as I didn't have a lot of experience with boats. It was a lot of work, but it's always satisfying to see a customer get excited about the results.

He's got at least 6g's in the motor, I hope you didn't give him to much of a break. Great work, and easily worth a grand.

 

[ZQ8Sonoma]

'

\r\n\r\nNice! :cooleek:'

 

[imported_smprince1]

Great work, and easily worth a grand.

Thanks for the encouragement .... I WISH you could get anywhere near a grand around here but that just isn't going to happen. :werd:



BTW, I think you're right about how much $$$ is in that motor.

 

[1988wellcraft21]

Beautiful work! Would you mind answering a couple questions? Trying to restore my red boat in a similar fashion, with loads of oxidation...



What made the biggest difference, the wet sanding or the compounding? Did you w/s the entire hull, or just where the stickers were? 300 seems awfully rough, would you recommend using that hull-wide? When i wet sand, I have a hard time getting out the fine scratches... Any tips for that? Any general tips for applying and buffing the compound?



I've been working my A$$ off trying to get my boat to shine. So far it's improved a lot, but there's lots of splotchy areas, where the paint looks intermittently great and oxidized... How do I even this out!



I'm blown away by your progress, especially knowing how difficult this is!

 

[David703]

STUNNING!!! Wow what a job!!!

 

[ScubaStevo]

Blah, I know what that feels like. It takes so long.

 

[imported_smprince1]

Would you mind answering a couple questions?

Happy to ... that's what these forums are all about :hifive:



I'm no expert by any stretch, but I enjoy coming here to learn and share my experiences as well.

What made the biggest difference, the wet sanding or the compounding?

Hard to say .... I'd guess the wet sanding removed more of the oxidized gel coat, but the compounding removed the wet sanding marks and "dullness" and restored more of the color and gloss.

Did you w/s the entire hull, or just where the stickers were?

I did the majority of the wet sanding where the stickers were because the faded gel coat was deeper than expected. It took a lot of sanding to get it to where the ghosting was sufficiently removed. I wet sanded the topside of the bow with 1500 because that was pretty faded due to the amount of UV exposure. I spot sanded a few other areas with 1500 as needed.

300 seems awfully rough, would you recommend using that hull-wide?

No, that was only used where the ghosting was.

When i wet sand, I have a hard time getting out the fine scratches... Any tips for that?

I would suggest stepping up to finer and finer wet sand paper before compounding. Then the compounding is easier because hopefully you've removed the really deep wet sand scratches before you start compounding. To be honest, at certain spots at certain angles at certain lighting I could still some hints of wet sanding marks. But, a lot of those were below the water line.

Any general tips for applying and buffing the compound?

Use a heavy compounding wool pad, apply the compound in a thin line around the pad, get the speed up higher than you might on a car and don't be afraid to apply some pressure. The gel coat is tougher than auto paint and it takes aggressive tactics to make a dent in it. Spur your pad often because when you'll be removing a lot of gel coat with aggressive tactics and that ends up in your pad so you need to spur frequently.

I've been working my A$$ off trying to get my boat to shine. So far it's improved a lot, but there's lots of splotchy areas, where the paint looks intermittently great and oxidized... How do I even this out!

I think wet sanding, compounding and polishing like you are doing are the way to go. It just takes time. Also, if the differential fading is very deep you might not be able to fully restore the boat. I think boats that have been left outside for long periods of time do sometimes suffer a lot of splotchy areas. Sometimes the damage is such that they'll never be 100% restored.



And yes ... I worked my a$$ off too .... boats are a lot more work than they appear.

I'm blown away by your progress, especially knowing how difficult this is!

Thanks for the kind words. Good luck with your project.

 

[1988wellcraft21]

Wow, epic response, thanks! Couple follow up bits...



- The areas where you used 1500... did you start with rougher grits, and then work up to 1500? Or just start and finish with the 1500?



- You mentioned the gel coat can take a lot of aggression. At what point, with persistent wet sanding and/or compounding, are you afraid of going straight through the gelcoat, or making it too thin?



- Interesting how you applied the compound... I was squirting the stuff onto a MF applicator, spreading it around a 2ft sq area, then compounding. Maybe I will try putting it directly onto the pad first. I will also try to spur the pad more often, or use new pads more often.



- My polisher is a Milwaukee 5460-6, which is 11amps, but maxes out at 1750RPM. Do you think that's fast enough to do the job?



- I'm beginning to agree that the differently faded areas may just be too deep to restore properly. It is funny, though, that I was able to restore the areas above the rubrail to near perfection. I'll keep working!