Oh That Shine! Compounding a Gel Coat Hull.
Calypso has been in need of some love in the form of gel coat work for some time now. We've had a couple of companies come out and work on her over the years...That seems to always go like this...
Us: We'd like the hull compounded, polished and waxed.
Company: Oh yeah, we'll take care of you.
Us: You'll do all three, right?
Company: It's gonna look great!
Then you watch them and the most we've ever seen anyone do is use a rotary buffer once on the hull....Impossible when all three tasks (compound, polish and wax) require some form of buffing. It's a scam...And this is the type of thing that costs top dollar to have done. It just goes back to the old saying, if you want something done right...You know the rest.
Jeremiah started to research how this should be done, mostly on YouTube. He found a great VLOG that clearly explained a technique that Jeremiah agreed with. You can see that VLOG here - https://youtu.be/CTnGNWwxf_A
So a little more research on types of compound, polish and wax and we were good to go! Jeremiah decided to purchase the following.
Compound
Presta Super Cut Compound - Link can be found HERE
This is the stuff Jeremiah used to gently buff off a bit of our Gel Coat. This takes the old, oxidized coat off to reveal a shiny new surface!
Polish
Presta Ultra Polish - Link can be found HERE
This is the second step in the process, this removes scratches and preps the surface for wax.
Meguiar's Marine Wax - Link can be found HERE
This protects the new surface from the elements, most importantly UV which will cause the oxidation once again!
Equipment
He also had to get the equipment to use, he went with the following:
Dewalt Buffer/Polisher - Link can be found HERE
This is the tool that is used to buff, polish and in our case wax. There are better tools for the wax application but in order to save space on the boat, we chose to just use this for waxing as well.
Wood Pad - Link can be found HERE
Apparently the pad quality is very important when cutting into gel coast with compound. You want a good wool pad for this process.
Presta Polishing Pad - Link can be found HERE
We got 2 of these polishing pads. One for polish and the other for applying the wax.
Cost:
We spent just under $400 for all the gear including the liquids and pads which will last many more jobs.
The process:
As you can see, Calypsos hull was pretty bad. Lots of miles on this baby...We weren't too sure how this would turn out but we went to work!
Compounding:
You can find the exact technique on the YouTube channel above as far as the compounding. This is exactly how Jeremiah did it and it worked perfectly! You could see immediate results! Then on to polishing!
The Polish:
Once the compound was complete, he simply grabbed the polish and new green pad. He applied just a small amount of polish on the pad and buffed it on the hull. This didn't take near the time it took to compound. Easy on and then wipe off with a micro fiber rag. You have to be careful not to use too much polish because if you do, it's pretty difficult to buff off. This stuff is thick!
The Wax:
After the polish was complete, he switched pads again. This time using another green pad. He applied the wax to the pad and then simply buffed it onto the hull. Once on, he gave it a few minutes to dry and then he buffed it off by hand using a micro fiber rag.
And that was it!
In our opinion, it's WAY better to just do this job yourself. You'll save thousands of dollars and you'll most likely get a better result.
