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If you want it done right...

Dude_HimselfDude_Himself Member Posts: 596 ✭✭✭
in General Boating Discussions
...do it yourself.

Hired a local kid to detail the 280 EC this spring. He was highly recommended, and did good work on the couple boats he's hit this year, based on Before/After pictures. I interviewed him, and he seemed to know his stuff. Silly me.

First, showed up to drop off the boat and there's a tree 9' over his driveway. Oh, wait, his driveway... bout that.... it was a skinny mile long dirt road through some pine forest. Part of it was grown over - just before you hit his house, at about 8'. I stopped and topped the tree for him, dropped it expertly back onto his property where it was out of the way, and continued on. Kid brother and mom are sitting out front drinking beer - but hey, it's the south.

Get a few photos that afternoon that look ok, then a concerning message to see if I'd swing by: the black won't clean up. When I get there he's using a drill with a buffing wheel on it and some furniture polish. We'd talked Presta, DA Orbital Buffers, etc. I'm a little surprised. Some areas look ok, but they're not shining up, and while we talked about wet sanding I didn't see any paper.

Next day I go out to pick the boat up, and it's just ok. Him and his kid brother (20 and maybe 15) had poured their hearts into it. He'd gone to Walmart and picked up some of the product I recommended and a cheap $20 buffer, but they didn't have the technique. I paid him most of what he asked for and took the boat home. Here's a photo from the only section wide enough to open the van door and get out:



So today I get my stuff out. Years ago, restoring a sailboat, I learned how to do this myself, and still had the Makita DA buffer, a few gallons of Presta product, pads, microfibers, etc. I started with a square, we'll make it UL, UR, LL, and LR:

  UL: wet sand with 600 (I don't have 1000 with me foolishly), gelcoat compound, polish, wax.
  UR: gelcoat compound, polish, and wax
  LL: gelcoat cutting compound (it's less abrasive, but with a light touch will work wonders), polish, wax
  LR: just polish and wax.

20 minutes later here's the results:






Wife and I agree that it's down to UL vs. UR, and I do a second test using a little more pressure and compound to see if I can avoid wet sanding. The left side is compounded, polished, and waxed, the right side is 600 grit wet sanded, compounded, polished, and waxed:




So now, once the 600-1400 grit wet sandpaper Amazon pack arrives, I'll get to spend a day redoing this from top to bottom so it all looks like this:


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