Some before and afters

[spharis]

Lighting is not perfect, but here is my new vinyl, afte the polish, and redoing the teak. I shoul dhave my tower before next season. Right now I am re-running the vent blower ducting, so I figured I'd fire off a few pics. Look closely at the chalky color stirpes and the weathered teak.....biggest changes there. In the rear, the pictures of before don't really tell the tale. It was really bad. I am sure Razz can vouch for how pics make it look better than it is. Now it's as smooth as glass........

It was on the trailer when I did it, and you can see where the residue ran down off the white.......I'll need to pressure wash that off.

before front port, I circled where the strap for the skylon was....I pulled it back to see how bad the gelcoat was:


after:


before fron star:


after:


before rearish


After:


ignore the dust from the dirty rag I used when I wiped it down last:



And the new instruments....one day I will get the rest.


after:

[spharis]

Just noticed photobucket compresses teal more than the other pics.....that is a smooth color.....The hullID is also shadowed in the same teal. Before pics were taken in AL and the after at my home.

[dogbert]

Just goes to show that good boats never die, somebody else buys them and makes them look like new!

Nice job spharis!

[Moki]

Very nice job, it looks showroom condition!

So, how do you add more than one picture in the same message?

[lee]

Originally posted by Moki
So, how do you add more than one picture in the same message?

The pictures are hosted on another site.

[chpthril]

Looks great man, my first boat was a Regal 'fixer upper' I had a blast Restoring it!

[do420jc]

Looks sick. Great job spharis. What tower are you putting on? What color? What was the cost to get that bling shine out of the gelcoat?

[spharis]

Originally posted by do420jc
Looks sick. Great job spharis. What tower are you putting on? What color? What was the cost to get that bling shine out of the gelcoat?

I am going with a black phat budde. It will actually ship un-powdered, so I will mock it up and see what color is going to look the best; but it will be black. I am going to top it off with a teal or purple bimini.

As far as the cost, about $30 worth of 3M compound and polish, then I also went ahead and got a Harbor Freight Special polisher with adjustable speed. Having the speed adjustment was much needed. The more shine required a little faster, and smoothing it out at first was a little slower. I also hit the teak with it with some sanding disc. I had to take off about 5mm of teak and about 1mm of gel. I figure the gel is about half as thick as it used to be. The polisher was pn clearance, adn still is:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92623
For $30 you can barely buy the hook and loop backing pads, and it came with those, and an extra set of motor brushes.

My new vinyl stickers and letters were $140 total.

Thats all as far as cash.....I put about 2 hours hand polishing with nil results, then picked up the buffer and put about 4 hours in. Made 3 passes with it. Heavy polish, light polish and scratch remover, and wax. I think I may hit it with some Meguires fnishing glaze this winter to finish it off, though I am not sure yet.

[do420jc]

I think I am going to order that buffer and try to do it myself. Did you do the top of the boat above the rubrail, near the upholstery and stuff? Is there any rule of thumb for buffing? Like no more than so much time in one spot, circular mothion, back and forth? Never doing this before I am little worried about causing damage to the boat. Any advice would be great. Thanks, do420jc.

[chpthril]

No more pressure than the weight of the buffer itself and keep it moving. It is easier to go back and hit a spot again than to fix burnt gelcoat. The key,IMHO is a variable speed buffer and don't let the pad dry out.

[spharis]

I did all the gel that is visible. Some spots were very hard to get to, so they aren't as clean....like around the speedo pickups, around the fuel filler, etc. I did those by habd, and it is a big difference. Next round, I will figure something else out for those areas.

I wouldnt worry about burning through gelcoat. It is about 10mil. You would need to hit it for a looooonnnnngggg time to compound through that. Now if you wetsand, then yeah I could see going through.

I pretty much went slower with the heavy, fast with the light, and slow with the polish/wax. You will get the hang of it after a little bit. You will need 6 pads. 2 compounding, for each boat half, 2 polishing for the light, and 2 for the polish. If you see that the gel is not smoothing, then you can up the speed a little until you see results. Work in areas about 2-3 foot, back and forth. Squirt the medium onto the pad, the kind of spread it over the work area before actually buffing. Start to buff using the top 1/4 of the pad area. After the heavy, the gel will feel smooth, but will look a little hazy, the light finishes it off. If I did it again, I would hit it with a mirror glaze, or a final polisher from Meguires before finishing. You may want to add that step.

Feel free to ask questions. Good Luck.

[do420jc]

Well, just bought the adjustable speed polisher from Harbor freight. As far as heavy, med and light compounds what do you suggest for brands and what not. All comments are welcome. Thanks again for all your help guys.

[Razzman]

Looks damn good SP! Graphics look good too! Yep I do think I'm gonna call your graphics guy. One question i do have is can you wax the graphics? I've noticed some these vinyl graphics people say not to get wax on them, kinda hard to do.

That's the same buffer i used from Harbor Freight! I got it on sale for $30 and it does a good job. Yeah mine was just as bad, no shine at all on top and the sides left a lot to be desired as well. I had to sand my swim platform as well as it was a mess! The guy just brushed the teak oil on in multiple coats so drips were everywhere! It was a job and a half to say the least.

It's great to see the older boats being cared for and not just trashed and forgotten. Great job!

Razz

[Razzman]

Originally posted by do420jc
Well, just bought the adjustable speed polisher from Harbor freight. As far as heavy, med and light compounds what do you suggest for brands and what not. All comments are welcome. Thanks again for all your help guys.

I used Meguiars Diamond Cut 2.0 for the initial cut. I then moved to Meguiars Swirl remover which really buffed it up and finished off with Meguiars Marine Flagship polish. And yes i'm a Meguiars guy as they make a great product. A important tip here, don't buff anymore than absolutely neccessary with the harsher compunds and keep that buffer moving at all times! Like SP said use only the weight of the buffer, no more.

[spharis]

I used all 3M Marine. 3M is used in most body shops. 3M Finesse line is a benchmark for most autobody, plus I could pick it up at the Academey down the road vs. mail order on the Meguires marine line.

I did not use the Meguire's so I couldn't tell you if there is a difference or not between the two. That's what our paint shop uses on helicopters.