Need Some Help, Restoring a 87' Ebbtide Fish & Ski

Hi Guys, great forum you guys have here, and I'm hoping someone here can help me....Please

I recently aquired a free boat,(cant beat "free") 87'Ebttide Fish & Ski, and I've decided to restore. Its Blue and white with metalic flake on top. I just finished the motor work, Evinrude 140 V4 and its checked out in good shape after 400 dollars. I've moved on the the hull, which is where I'm having some probelms. I decided to wetsand the gelcoat. It has some serious oxidation and having read here its the right course of action....or maybe not. My plan was to use 800 grit, followed by 1000 grit followed by 3M Rubbing Compound, followed by 3M Finesse-It II, and finally wax. I started playing around with it using 800 grit and it seems to be doing a good job. On the solid color areas it worked magic, however on the metallic flake portion it still looks dingy and yellow. Can I go lower in grit? How low can you go, before I remove all the gelcoat?

In advance Thank You...

I'll post some pictures in the coming days.

Re: Need Some Help, Restoring a 87' Ebbtide Fish & Ski

no such thing as a free boat! you will pay for it one way or a nother. ok i do a lot of fiberglass and gel coat work and what i would do is on the solid color areas (gel coated areas) if you want it to look perfect when done is start with 600grt then 800 then 1200 then 2000. you could skip a few but start with 600. get a spray bottle full of water and spray a small area then use the 600 on an orbital sander on the spot that is wet. I like to work on a section about 1'sq before moving on. keep the sander moving at all times! back ond forth/ up and down, when you see the gelcoat dust making what looks like toothpase on the sandpaper or if some tooth paste looking paste starts to form on the hull you need to wipe it off with a rag and give it a few more sprays it is getting a little dry and too much dust building up. keep a rag in your hand and keep sanding/ spraying wiping. after you go over that 1'sq about 10 times spray it off real good and wipe it off and take a look at it, it should start to shine pretty nice. if you are getting a good shine skip the 800 and go over the same area with the 1200 with the same process as above. after you finish with the 1200 spray wipe clean it should look like a new boat. look for small scratches, if you dont see scratches keep going with the process, if you do then you know you will have to do 600/800/1200 all wet sanding but 600/1200 should do ya. as far as the metalic flake area on the top i dont think that is gelcoat i think it is more of an epoxy based clearcoat. start in reverse as for the gelcoated areas. small section in the back corner i would work in a little 3" test area wet sanding with your hand with 2000, if it does not damage the finish and does not look like it did much try the 1200 and keep working your way down to the 800 but i would not go lower than the 800! good luck, post some pics!

Re: Need Some Help, Restoring a 87' Ebbtide Fish & Ski

hi.....welcome to iboats !

congrats on the boat.....

the clear coat on the flake (if factory) is marble clear gellcoat, shot at about 20 thou thickness.

gellcoat gets ist up protection from the pigment.....and clear does not have any.....so the yellowing is from the uv damage to the boat.

getting the yellow out of the clear wont happen unless its just on the surface of the gell.......you might try the 800 over it.....but if you go too deep you will expose the flake. so you have to be really careful.

you could do a re shoot......but that is another whole can of worms. metal flake is one of the hardest finishes to repair.

Re: Need Some Help, Restoring a 87' Ebbtide Fish & Ski

oops! said:

hi.....welcome to iboats !

congrats on the boat.....

the clear coat on the flake (if factory) is marble clear gellcoat, shot at about 20 thou thickness.

gellcoat gets ist up protection from the pigment.....and clear does not have any.....so the yellowing is from the uv damage to the boat.

getting the yellow out of the clear wont happen unless its just on the surface of the gell.......you might try the 800 over it.....but if you go too deep you will expose the flake. so you have to be really careful.

you could do a re shoot......but that is another whole can of worms. metal flake is one of the hardest finishes to repair.

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I was afraid this would be the answer. I?ve already done the 800 on a portion of it, no good....Is there other options? Could I strip the top to the metal flake and just redo it? Is it worth it and can I do this myself or must be a pro? Could I strip and paint?

I appreciate the replies from both of you, and if I happen to ask a dumb question I apologize in advance. I'm new to this whole boating thing and I'm trying to learn.

I'd post some pictures but I'm currently hard at work...

Re: Need Some Help, Restoring a 87' Ebbtide Fish & Ski

no such thing as a dumb question here bud.....and this is boat university.....so learning is easy if you read.

paint is always an option and if you really hate the look of the yellow flake.....that would be the cheapest route.

if you go a full re-gell with flake.....well....that is a ton of work....you can do it....but its tricky

you could sand the entire thing off and re gell....but it is 3 times the work of paint. ......painters clean thier guns and go to the bar after a shoot....gellcoaters are just rolling up there sleeves after a gell shoot.

as you sand deeper into the gell......you will start to hit the flake....and actually be sanding part of the flake off......if you re gell it over damaged flake......you wont get the full reflection that flake gives....it will always look kinda "flat"

so the question is......do you want the flake?....as in.....do you totally love the look of the boat?

Re: Need Some Help, Restoring a 87' Ebbtide Fish & Ski

oops! said:

no such thing as a dumb question here bud.....and this is boat university.....so learning is easy if you read.

paint is always an option and if you really hate the look of the yellow flake.....that would be the cheapest route.

if you go a full re-gell with flake.....well....that is a ton of work....you can do it....but its tricky

you could sand the entire thing off and re gell....but it is 3 times the work of paint. ......painters clean thier guns and go to the bar after a shoot....gellcoaters are just rolling up there sleeves after a gell shoot.

as you sand deeper into the gell......you will start to hit the flake....and actually be sanding part of the flake off......if you re gell it over damaged flake......you wont get the full reflection that flake gives....it will always look kinda "flat"

so the question is......do you want the flake?....as in.....do you totally love the look of the boat?

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well I like the flake look, I however do not like the dirty flake look. I dont care for this since the entire top is metal flake and this creates some problems, like removing a fish finder mount exposed a portion of metal flake that looks brand new. No problem if I wanted the fish finder, big problem since I dont want it. So if I paint it, whats the procedure? Wont I need to go over the paint with a gel coat?

Re: Need Some Help, Restoring a 87' Ebbtide Fish & Ski

Antihero27 said:

Wont I need to go over the paint with a gel coat?

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Actually no. Paint will adhere to the gel quite well. You will just need to sand it well and clean it it well. There are a Lot of paint options out there. $500 dollar paint jobs and $50 dollar paint jobs. All have their place. What's your budget? Some of the Higher end Paints are Interlux and Awlgrip. You can even use Car paint like Imron. In the Mid range is Pettit Easypoxy. And on the low end but still very durable is Valspar Tractor paint with Acrylic Enamel Hardener. I used it to paint my boat and it turned out great. It all depends on what your budget is and what your intentions are for the boat.