Wet sanding and Buffing

[jjbeckman]

I am working on Wetsanding my 1994 Stratos 201 Pro XL. The boat has the red metallic flake interior and top cap, with black hull and accent stripe along the top cap. The black has noticeable cracking all along the top cap which looks a little better after wet sanding. I started with 1000 then 1500, and then 2000. I then hit it with Step 2 and 3 of 3m polishes with a buffer. I then put a couple of coats of was on top. It all looks really good for about a day. The gel coat is extremely smooth. After a day or even a few hours it still turns a little cloudy. I have tried spots being more aggressive with the wet sanding (1000/1500/2000) and I still get the same result. Should I be starting with something more aggressive sand paper wise or doing something differently with polish and wax. It looks great after applying all the products, but I get discouraged when I see the cloudyness on the top cap. I tried to follow the BassCats directions as best I could. Any I missing something?

the first and last pic are the same area at different angles.

[58LesPaul]

What does the gelcoat look like after wet sanding? Wait a day and see how it looks. If it looks good then polish and wait a day and same with the wax. But my guess is you haven't wet sanded down to good clear gelcoat yet.

[crank68]

First off the cracking will just be there unless you grind em out and repair properly. As stated above....you must not have started aggressive enough to get rid of the oxidation. The problem with doing all the work then seeing the fading come back immediately is you’re thinning your gel down now you have to thin it some more to see if you have it correct this time. Thats really the only choice you have. This is another example of cases that I say every boat is different. I see advice on what paper to start and finish with....even with pics it’s very hard to give good advice without seeing the boat. You only have so much gel to work with....

[str8blucollar]

If you're using 3m step 2 and 3, you're just polishing. You need to use a compound with a wool pad to get rid of the sanding scratches before polishing.

[tracer1]

First off the cracking will just be there unless you grind em out and repair properly. As stated above....you must not have started aggressive enough to get rid of the oxidation. The problem with doing all the work then seeing the fading come back immediately is you’re thinning your gel down now you have to thin it some more to see if you have it correct this time. Thats really the only choice you have. This is another example of cases that I say every boat is different. I see advice on what paper to start and finish with....even with pics it’s very hard to give good advice without seeing the boat. You only have so much gel to work with....

This is why Ted will be doing my boat soon............

[tracer1]

First off the cracking will just be there unless you grind em out and repair properly. As stated above....you must not have started aggressive enough to get rid of the oxidation. The problem with doing all the work then seeing the fading come back immediately is you’re thinning your gel down now you have to thin it some more to see if you have it correct this time. Thats really the only choice you have. This is another example of cases that I say every boat is different. I see advice on what paper to start and finish with....even with pics it’s very hard to give good advice without seeing the boat. You only have so much gel to work with....

This is why Ted will be doing my boat soon............

[jjbeckman]

I added close ups to the original post. It looks much better than when I started, but I think it could look a lot better.

[crank68]

Pics look purdy good. The crazing in the black will be expensive to grind out and reshoot gel and flake. Notice the color of the red where something was screwed to the boat. That color will never come back. Looks like from the pics your close to where you need to be. Catch your overhead lights in the finish and rock your head back and forth all over the top cap looking for clearity, haze, sanding marks, etc. Redo those areas. It’s still hard to really tell without being in person but from the pics it looks good.