Newbie with gel coat ?

[ondarvr]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

You must be too young to have worked at an old school gas station and cleaned windshields, or worked in Oregon at one recently.

Not having ridges is in the technique, its not hard once you see how it's done, but even with ridges it will be easier to sand than a roller finish.

 

[Slayer315]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Yes, have never worked in a gas station, but have cleaned many windows. No, never mastered the technique.
What about the sanding? Sand now to smooth, then again after next coat?
What do I buff with? Any particular type of wax?

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

I may have missed something in the thread ( I got banned for a short time heheh ) ..

Why do you want a Polished deck/sole surface ? or do you ? ..

If it were mine .. I would take some 80 grit on a DA sander and sand what you have smooth .. then coat any Bare spots .. then mix some non-skid with my Gel and Non-skid the deck.

Is this something that you have considered ?

YD.

 

[Slayer315]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

I may have missed something in the thread ( I got banned for a short time heheh ) ..

Why do you want a Polished deck/sole surface ? or do you ? ..

If it were mine .. I would take some 80 grit on a DA sander and sand what you have smooth .. then coat any Bare spots .. then mix some non-skid with my Gel and Non-skid the deck.

Is this something that you have considered ?

YD.

I will be using Seadek for areas with foot traffic. The part I want to polish smooth and bright will be the areas where I don't expect feet to go( under seats, corners, sides).
I have already bought the Seadek. Installed some on my ski locker hatch. I think I will like it, but will need to get it all down on deck to really get a good feeling for it.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Cool then

Well I guess you could try to sand and buff now.

Start with some 320 .. if its taking too long then fall back to 220g and then 400 then 600 then buff.

One suggestion .. scribble the gel with a marker and kinda wipe it around with a damp acetone rag. This way you know when to stop sanding.

YD.

 

[Slayer315]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Cool then

Well I guess you could try to sand and buff now.

Start with some 320 .. if its taking too long then fall back to 220g and then 400 then 600 then buff.

One suggestion .. scribble the gel with a marker and kinda wipe it around with a damp acetone rag. This way you know when to stop sanding.

YD.

Thanks. What do I buff with? Any certain type of wax?

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Thanks. What do I buff with? Any certain type of wax?

'

It's not wax, you need a buffing compound, there several options from coarse to fine.

You may need to read other threads on this subject, it frequently gets covered in detail.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Yes .. and a machine ( rotary buffer ) to do this with.

Sand down to about 600-800 grit and buff it out with a White pad and some Compound ( Dont use wax at all ).

YD.

 

[Slayer315]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Yes .. and a machine ( rotary buffer ) to do this with.

Sand down to about 600-800 grit and buff it out with a White pad and some Compound ( Dont use wax at all ).

YD.

So I have started sanding down. When I sand down with the finer stuff( 600 or 800), do I use a tool or do I do it by hand with a pad? I have not seem to be able to find fine grit paper that is meant for an orbital sander.
Also, just to clarify. I want to do some 600, then move up to 1000/1200. Then use a compound to buff it out. Is this correct?
I have done some research and watched YouTube videos, but still have these questions.
Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Use a DA sander, but on the tight spots you may be doing it by hand. While people seem to commonly say to go to very fine on sand paper , 1200 or finer, it is rarely done in the industry. 800 is about as fine as most places go, with 600 being common. I'm not saying there is never a need for the finer paper, only that buffing can typically remove sanding scratches from 600 and 800, especially when using a DA.

 

[Slayer315]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Ondarvr, thanks for the info. Wile researching, I read and watched where people had sanded gel and seemed to be getting a shiny finish prior to buffing. Is this normal? At this point I can't see how my gel can go from chalky white to shiny. Am I supposed to add something or just keep sanding?

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

So I have started sanding down. When I sand down with the finer stuff( 600 or 800), do I use a tool or do I do it by hand with a pad? I have not seem to be able to find fine grit paper that is meant for an orbital sander.
Also, just to clarify. I want to do some 600, then move up to 1000/1200. Then use a compound to buff it out. Is this correct?
I have done some research and watched YouTube videos, but still have these questions.
Thanks for your help in advance.

I use 1000 + grit 5-6" all day long .. but its VERY expensive.

The use of finer paper is to relax on the Compound and rely on more of the sanding.

1200 grit is less grit than your new born baby will need on his bottom side when changing swaddles.

We in the Industry use fine fine paper when the 'blend' of a repair is considered a 'Hard blend'. Meaning its just too .. difficult to blend the colors of a faded gel. .. so we try to Match to the Faded out gel.

Not so much in paint repairs as they do not fade as much..

Yes you can cruise over it with some 600 .. or go for a 400 directly to 1000 to remove half of the profile .. then buff/polish.

It really depends on the repair and the Substrate. .. Do you have enough gel on there to Hide the substrata .. ?

YD.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

It will typically not have a shiny finish prior to buffing unless you use very fine paper, and even then it will only be slightly glossy. The buffing is what makes it shine.

Do a small area first, about 1' x 1' and try stopping at 600 then buffing, if you don't like the finish try 800, and go from there. Once you get it dialed in you won't be wasting time by doing the entire thing with one method only to find out you need to do something different to achieve the desired result.

It is not possible for someone to tell you exactly what will work every time, some gel coats are softer than others and buff to a high gloss rather easily, others take much more work to achieve the same finish. You are the only one that needs to be satisfied with the final result.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

It will typically not have a shiny finish prior to buffing unless you use very fine paper, and even then it will only be slightly glossy. The buffing is what makes it shine.

It will Never get a finish unless you buff it out. .. there IS the Truth ..

Do a small area first, about 1' x 1' and try stopping at 600 then buffing, if you don't like the finish try 800, and go from there. Once you get it dialed in you won't be wasting time by doing the entire thing with one method only to find out you need to do something different to achieve the desired result.

It is not possible for someone to tell you exactly what will work every time, some gel coats are softer than others and buff to a high gloss rather easily, others take much more work to achieve the same finish. You are the only one that needs to be satisfied with the final result.

Thats what I have been saying all along ..

YD.

 

[Slayer315]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Thanks for all the info guys. I spent a good 10+ hrs today sanding. Have not made it to the fine grit yet. Lots of hand sanding around the corner and hard to reach areas. Got a little too pushy on some corners and took away too much. Had to put down a another coat at those spots.
I did a little test ondarvr suggested with some fine stuff. 600 seems to be pretty smooth and gets a small amount of sheen. Hoping tomorrow I can get most if not all done with sanding and start buffing.
I still have a bunch of other stuff to do to get this thing all finished up and get boat ready. We are planning on a trip to a friends lake place for the week of the 4th of July. So I got to get moving.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Sometimes just a quick cruis-over with some 1000 grit wet paper will help with those that are less experienced with a buffer. It really does help for a better shine without so much buffing.

At your finer grits its basically all sandpaper. Compound is basically sandpaper. So sand with paper and help your buffing.. or use a higher grit compound instead of sandpaper.

Your choice.

I personally like to use the quicky 1000 grit method .

Good luck and take/post up some pics

YD.

 

[gatorfan6908]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Slayer,
Here is a link with some great info on restoring/sanding/polishing/buffing, etc. gelcoat. Use it as you will. I got a lot of great info from it. Restoring Gel Coat - fiberglassics.com

 

[Slayer315]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Slayer,
Here is a link with some great info on restoring/sanding/polishing/buffing, etc. gelcoat. Use it as you will. I got a lot of great info from it. Restoring Gel Coat - fiberglassics.com

Thanks for the info. Funny cuz I actually was googling for some info on finishing up and found that.
Have had a little progress, and alot of frustration. Went out yesterday to sand some more. Started with DA sander, it decided to not work right( it's old, air powered, lost torque), so moved to HF polisher sander, worked well till decided not to turn back on after a break.( still not working) so then I went to a small palm sander to try and knock down some of the thicker areas and get a new sander later. That one started acting weird then " cluck" no more work from it. So i was a little ticked. Went to 4 local stores looking for a replacement. Couldn't find one. So pretty much a wasted day. Decided to buy/ change spark plugs and lower unit oil. Went to HF an hour away and found another sander.
This morning went to work. Went to sand some more with new sander. Kept getting gouges. Finally look at paper. Somehow I saw the 240 grit but grabbed the 80. Oh man things just aren't going my way. Spent rest of day today sanding, then covering spots where I went to much with sander. Not sure what I did this time but got mixtures off. Made up 1 cup of gel( just like I have been) and started covering spots. 1/2 way done and gel was kicking off. So I ended up with 1/2 cup of solid gel.
I have to work for the next 60 hrs. I am hoping my luck changes when I get back home.
Sorry for the sob story, just sharing the pit falls of small projects( haha)

 

[Slayer315]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

Well, not 100% finished, but family is ready to get out. We have a camping trip planned at a friends lake property. So I have been busting my butt to get ready. Still have some finish work to complete. But it's usable, and it's hot out, so got done just in time to head out tomorrow.

 

[mrchev]

Re: Newbie with gel coat ?

nice job looks great. how much gell coat did you end up using .