Gel coat polishing videos

[Hula Boat Care]

Here are a set of recent videos showing oxidation removal, polishing, and applying of polymer sealant.
As the season is approaching many are preparing to detail their boats and I thought these short videos would be useful.








There are a couple more videos to come.

Remember Tige forum members get 15% off their purchases till April 1st. If your order is more than $50 I will send you a Hula Boat Care T-Shirt for free.
Contact me at info@hulaboatcare.com for the coupon code.

John...

[Duncan]

Great videos. Takes the mystery put of polishing for those who might not have done it. A few questions.

I use an orbital to polish (and wax). I have read it is more difficult to mess up your finish with an orbital vs a rotary. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a rotary?

Could you explain the differences between the wax product and the polymer sealant product?

[Matt Garcia]

Great videos, made this one a sticky.

[bwood357]

Do i need to wax my boat if it is brand new or does it come from the factory with a good wax job?

[Duncan]

^^^ wax it for sure!

[Hula Boat Care]

Here is the latest water spot removal video using my Gnarly Water Spot Remover.
It works on all surfaces and will not strip wax.
Best of all it smells good.

[Hula Boat Care]

Great videos. Takes the mystery put of polishing for those who might not have done it. A few questions.

I use an orbital to polish (and wax). I have read it is more difficult to mess up your finish with an orbital vs a rotary. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a rotary?

Could you explain the differences between the wax product and the polymer sealant product?

Hey Duncan, Great questions.

A rotary polisher is more aggressive a tool than an orbital polisher.
Rotary polishers are traditionally used to address medium to severe defects in gel coat like oxidation, scratches, scuffs, stains etc. Most detailers will use a rotary polisher to apply compound and cleaner wax to the surface.

Dual Action or Orbital polishers are less aggressive and are better suited to address mild to medium defects. Most commonly it is used to apply cleaner wax to address mild defects or apply sealants and waxes.

To me a dual action or orbital polishers is a mechanical hand that helps apply a thin uniform layer of wax consistently over a large area. It will help get good coverage in less time than hand waxing. The uniform layer of wax that it applies will make the wipe off much easier. The disadvantage of this tool is that it cannot efficiently remove scratches, scuffs etc as quickly as a rotary polisher.

Rotary polishers are faster and remove defects quickly. It does require a bit more training and comfort to get this tool to work right and not over heat the gel coat ( over heating the gel coat can result in a drop of gloss ).

In reference to the product question.

Hang Ten Cleaner Wax contains a mild diminishing abrasive to remove mild oxidation, scuffs, and blemishes. It also has a polish that restores gloss and optical clarity of the gel coat and leaves a coat of wax that will last between 2 to 3 months depending on the environment.

Big Kahuna Polymer Sealant contains a micro abrasive which will remove old/oxidized wax. This abrasive is not big enough to remove defects in the gel coat. It then leaves a layer of synthetic polymers on the surface to fill in gel coat porosity leaving a smooth water repellent surface with great UV protection. This product will last on average 4 months in our Texas heat.

So basically the story goes:

Polymer Sealant for new or like new surfaces
Cleaner Wax for everything else. Then once cleaner wax treats the surface restoring to like new apply polymer sealant.

Hope this helps and if there are any other questions I am always happy to answer them.

John...

[Hula Boat Care]

Here is a vinyl cleaning video that I recently shot.

http://youtu.be/fzUra396K9M

The surface was left clean without any oily or greasy feel and got plenty of UV protection.

[skippabcool]

Here so you don't have to link away from TO

[Hula Boat Care]

Here is a recent video showing oxidation removal from Malibu.



I guess Tige's don't get this bad

[skindog44]

What about buffing and waxing over the decals and lettering?? any tips on that? should you avoid using a buffer on those??
thanks!

[Ewok]

Go straight over them, the buffer will not remove any decals unless it's in really bad shape and just about to come off on it's own anyhow.

[Hula Boat Care]

I agree with Ewok... a rotary polisher with a wool or foam pad will not usually remove a vinyl decal if they are in good shape.
If the decals are dried and cracked a polisher may flake away the edges or mar the color color off the decal.

[Wakesurfection]

Do you have any videos on how to remove scratches on gelcoat? I've tried rubbing compound but that is only useful to remove rubber marks caused by tyres on piers or boat fenders. Any other suggestions?

[Hula Boat Care]

Hello Wakesurfection
We current do not have any videos on deep scratches from gelcoat as this would require wet sanding with a variety of grits of paper then followed with compound polish and wax. The challenge in creating a generic video on sanding is that it would be hard to demonstrate the depth of the scratch, condition of the gel coat, and the sanding technique required.

As many guys on the forum can tell you... Wet sanding is not a fun job and if you can have someone do it for you at a reasonable price that would be a way to go.

Feel free to email me any specific questions at info@hulaboatcare.com or PM me.

John