Do not go straight to the polish. We thought the hulls were smooth enough after we wetsanded with 100... and after the polish we weren't getting the shine we wanted. So we went back, wiped with acetone, and used the rubbing compound first and then the polish and got the shine we were after.

Eric, How'd your boat turn out? I think your boat is painted with Awlgrip. I wouldn't use heavy cut on Awlgrig. I'm speculating on your hull finish. I'd call Craig and ask him.

Perfectit III will take out 800 grit scratches easily, I don't know about 100^^^.

I doubt your sealing the 303 in. More like the wax blocking the stain. The wax is why your soo slow.

When you polish surfaces you use the coarser compound first. Some people (most) will stop at that point. To do it right you need to go to the next step which is using a glazing compoud like the Finesse-it with a foam pad not the wool. This removes the fine scratcthes from the compound and truly polishes the surface. It's hard to tell on white however on something black you'd see the difference.

If you don't glaze it the shine will seem to fade faster and stain easier. The finesse-it is a good product but the best that I've used is Meguiars #7 show car glaze applied with the foam pad at low speed.

I doubt the 1sq foot of wax area on my bow (that stu did while i wasn't looking) is whats slowing me down....

Wait i mean.. Yea, the wax must be why i am slower than you...

Jeremy,
Craig just painted over some areas but didn't refinish the total boat. The boat mainly has gel coat, but it is very thin gel coat. Craig gave me the Perfect-It. So I'm just trying to spruce it up a bit more. Craig said I could polish with the stuff, but that seemed to thin out the gel coat (and paint) too much. It's perfectly functional just not boat-show-shine. I'm trying to figure out how to polish out the slightly matte finish I have on the bottom of the hulls without removing a lot of material.

The big work Craig did was fixing the leaking and cracked daggerboard wells and gluing the beams, which came out very nice. Can't find a nicer guy than Craig. Here it is a recession and the guy's shop has work bursting out of the doors. I was trying to do him a favor by doing the last bit of finishing work.

Apply wet or dry?

What is low speed? My machine goes down to about 200 RPMS.

Got it! Craig is an artist with all things composite and a great guy to do business with. Guy went to Stanford and now he's mixin' glue. Pretty funny.

On the boat, I was thinking it might be a pretty thin surface. Did he give you 'heavy cut' or another grit? If it's the heavy cut I'd go pretty easy on the gel, it's easy on to burn through. I'd go REALLY easy on the paint with that stuff.

The beauty of the Prefectit line is that it breaks down into a finer polish as you use it, therefore saving several steps.

Hope you enjoy your boat. We have a couple of A-class events coming up at the SCYC that you should come on down for.

J

I've got a variable dewalt and on low it's 1000 rpm. Careful if you use a foam pad, to much pressure and you can over heat the surface causing small blisters.

Don't ask me how I know



Thats using the meguiars. The # 7 is mainly a hand polish so it works best slower. No water. There's another product Aqua Blue. There's two grades coarse, fine. I use water with the fine only. Like it a lot. Geared more for gel coat.