About a month ago my nephew called me and asked for advice on a good boat wax. After asking him a few questions I learned he had just bought a boat that may need some work. He said it had some oxidation and he wanted it cleaned up before the boating season. It was like pulling teeth to get him to send me a pic, but from what I gathered it may need some work beyond his ability (since he did not have a polisher and/or any experience using one.) The good news is he offered to buy me a plane ticket if I helped him restore the finish on his boat. Long story short, my enthusiasm for detailing led me on a trip into territory I had not tred, boat detailing. I was hoping I could conquer the beast with a PC, but expecting the worst I packed the rotary as well. As you will see later, I am glad I did. I never did get a pic so I was not quite sure what to buy, but after a bit of research I settled on trying Meguiar?s One Step Compound.
I set off for the airport in Phoenix at 5 am Thursday and arrived in SLC, UT at 8:45. We drove to his house passed Park City and scoped out a storage unit his friend offered to let him use for the project. The storage unit was not much, in fact it sucked, but his garage was full of crap and time was short. We made it work.
We started at the car wash with the pre-wash soak and the pink foamy crap the brush spits out. We scrubbed by hand with a couple of wash bones and hit it with a high-pressure rinse. We dried it and set off for the storage unit.
Here is the boat before we started. It does not look too bad, right?
On closer inspection you see this.
I left PHX early but after all the work to get the boat washed and in place we only had time for a few test spots and about 10% of our polishing. (My nephew was done then, he wanted to just wax and go.) Here is a good before and after.
We did have a halogen light to work with but it made most of the pics look yellow. Here is a shot of a good scuff we took out with the One Step.
The One Step Compound was making good progress but some spots were so hazy that it was tough to tell if we were not getting the oxidation or maybe leaving polish behind. After a call to Meguiar?s customer care we decided to press forward and keep polishing. We polished once with the rotary and followed with the PC. Still I felt we needed a clean up polish. After day two of polishing I ran to Park City and picked up a bottle of Meg Ultimate Compound. I know it's not designed for boats, but it is the closest polish with a bit of bite that I had access to. Meguiar?s Customer Care said it was quite aggressive for cars but tame on a gel coat which is harder than auto paint. So I thought we might have something that would help clean things up a bit and still have a bit of bite. Well it was just what the doctor ordered.
On day three, my nephew got called to work and had to fly to Atlanta. Well his brother came to help (He worked his butt off). We re-polished the entire boat with the PC and Ultimate Compound and applied two coats of Collinite 476.
Here is where the boat starts to look good.
After Wax. I think it turned out pretty good.
(This side of the the boat was exposed to more sun because of where the previous owner stored it and was much chalkier than the before/after I showed)
A few incidental pics. You can see I destroyed one pad.
The rest are toast anyway. Even with frequent cleaning they soaked up a ton of polish and debris. My bag was over weight so I think I will toss a few things before I go home. I will evaluate that in the morning.
Man what a work out, I am pooped. 72 hours later the boat looks great, but I would keep working on it to get it perfect (I?m out of vacation time so I must go home.)
Got to use a few power tools! Boat exceeds nephew's expectations! Got to have dinner with an old friend twice! (she's really cute) All in all it was a great trip. Some use of vacation time, right?
Thanks for reading!
:White Horse:
