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are my arms too weak?

teamhart2

teamhart2

Well-known member
Hey guys,
besides a lot of work on the boat this weekend I got in my order from aquabuff. Took a few minutes and rubbed on some 1000 by hand with a piece of cotton, it def cleaned it up a bit and looked a bit better. I didnt bother to follow with 2000 or wax yet, but I was a bit underwhelmed with the result. I did notice the cloth I used had some blue taint to it when I was done, does this mean im outta gelcoat or something?

or are my arms to weak and I need to wait till my power polisher arrives?
 
teamhart2 said:
Hey guys,
besides a lot of work on the boat this weekend I got in my order from aquabuff. Took a few minutes and rubbed on some 1000 by hand with a piece of cotton, it def cleaned it up a bit and looked a bit better. I didnt bother to follow with 2000 or wax yet, but I was a bit underwhelmed with the result. I did notice the cloth I used had some blue taint to it when I was done, does this mean im outta gelcoat or something?

or are my arms to weak and I need to wait till my power polisher arrives?
Click to expand...

Th2, that's probably the oxidization you're seeing. You'll get better results when you use the buffer. My boat is black, I did the same thing at first and got black residue on the cloth I was using. You might need to water sand the boat first before buffing, it all depends on how bad the oxidization is. Good Luck.
 
thanks guys!!! just wanted to make sure I wasnt gonna end up going through all my color or something and have no shine left
 
I believe in the instruction's for Aqua-buff on the 1000 grit you need to use a rotary buffer that does 5000rpm. then 2000 grit and then a good polish (I use Flitz) then a sealer like NU Finish. If you are going to to it buy hand I would do a light wet sand? But you will kill yourself trying to do aquabuff buy hand!!! but that stuff works magic and in the end is worth doing! My boat was bad and every year I do it it keeps getting better and better. And Easier good luck! If you seach treads aqua-buff there is a really good run thru posts by Mark
 
yea, I was just fooling around on a small spot to see what it looked like, Ive got a variable speed polisher on the way and will wait till the boats back together before I really get after it, but the eager beaver in me wanted to check it out when the stuff got here.
 
Per www.aqua-buff.com

AQUA-BUFF 1000F, 16 oz. container
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]$14.95 Reg. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]$8.95 SALE [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This is a fast cut compound used to remove heavy oxidation and eliminate scratches. It is specifically designed for rotary buffing machines. Use on fiberglass boats, aluminum boats, RV’s, and airplanes. It will achieve the ultimate swirl free showroom shine. Easily applied with applicator pad, misted with water, and machine buffed with rotary buffing machine with at least 2500 rpm. See instructions. It is economical because you only need half the amount compared to other compounds. It is a water-based compound and therefore environmentally friendly. It is now packaged in 16 oz. plastic containers, as well as commercial quantities. Paste is grey in color. [/FONT]
 
I have been working on my starflite for the past 3 months. I did a small spot on the deck and even both ab 1000 and ab 2000 with a rotory buffer wasn't enough, my gelcoat on the deck is completly faded. I ended up wet sanding and that does the trick, so now i am wet sanding the whole top half of the boat and it is taking forever. I also ended up going all the way down to 220 grit on the worst spots, I sanding through most of the gel coat and even loosing some metlal flake but it is fixing the oxidation. I am nearly finished with 220 on the whole boat and ready to go over it with 400, then 800 then aqua buff. This AB is amazing stuff no doubt but don't be discouraged if it doesn't seem to work, you can't shine up heavily oxidized gelcoat, think of it as rusted metal and you need to get the rust off first before you polish it. -shane
 
i am using a rotary that only goes as low as 1600 rpm unless i load it up. 1600 slings the product all over.

more rpm = more heat. this dries your compound too quicly. adding water only thins it out netting a slower result. IMHO of coarse.:)
 
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