Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

[KlemVogue]

Hi there.

Here is my problem.

I did a bad polishing job there are 2 years ago, I was badly advised and now my paint is scratched... I met several car professionals detailers this last days to get informations about the right way to repair this paint. The problem is that here in France the detailing world is quite recent and most of the people I met wasn't familiar at all with this kind of work on a fiberglass /gelcoat body. One of them suggests me to wrap the RV instead of trying to polish it.

I ordered a good DA buffer (10mm of orbital movement) and pads, and I ordered Meguiar's products :the m67 for the first step, the M45 for the second and finally the m56 for waxing it. Does the m67 has enough grinding action to remove heavy scratches and swirls or I should go with a stronger one like Meguiar's M105 for example?

I would like to share pics with you but I did not find the way to upload a few ones...

I hope that I'll be able to bring back my paint to its original condition... I really love my motorhome! =)

Bye for now!

[Nick Winn]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

Hi there.

Here is my problem.

I did a bad polishing job there are 2 years ago, I was badly advised and now my paint is scratched... I met several car professionals detailers this last days to get informations about the right way to repair this paint. The problem is that here in France the detailing world is quite recent and most of the people I met wasn't familiar at all with this kind of work on a fiberglass /gelcoat body. One of them suggests me to wrap the RV instead of trying to polish it.

I ordered a good DA buffer (10mm of orbital movement) and pads, and I ordered Meguiar's products :the m67 for the first step, the M45 for the second and finally the m56 for waxing it. Does the m67 has enough grinding action to remove heavy scratches and swirls or I should go with a stronger one like Meguiar's M105 for example?

I would like to share pics with you but I did not find the way to upload a few ones...

I hope that I'll be able to bring back my paint to its original condition... I really love my motorhome! =)

Bye for now!

Welcome, is the motorhome painted or gel coat/fiberglass? I see you reference both within your post. This will help us give you an accurate recommendation for moving forward : )

If it is fiberglass/gel coat and not automotive paint, M67 Marine/RV One Step Compound on a red foam cutting pad would be a great start.

[KlemVogue]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

Hi Nick and thank you for your reply.

It's a fiberglass body, it's a 1988 high end motorhome (vogue). The professionals I met were thinking that the white parts are "pure" gelcoat and the colored part automotive paint, no vinyl decals only paint graphic. I will try to share picture of the paint defect, I think I understood how I should proceed to share pics with you. For the moment, here is a twin of my motorhome on the following link.

http://www.viewrvs.com/motorhome/vogue/1988/1988-vogue-35-b.php

I will follow your advice and start with trying a cutting foam pad with the M67 compound, I plan about begin the process in the end of the week. Very happy to find this forum and people more familiar and aware about the right way to go with this kind of job; I have read a few topics here and there in the forum and it's pretty helpful.

Bye for now

[KlemVogue]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

Hi Nick and thank you for your reply.

I replied to you but it seems that my answer has not been sent.
It's a fiberglass RV. No vinyl decal, only paint. The guys I met told me that it was surely automotive paint.
I remembered that I used Meguiar"s Ultimate Compound with a very low end and cheap buffer (rotary one, with a cheap synthetic wool pad on it) then I used Ultimate polish with the same cheap machine and an other bad pad... then I covered it with a meguiar's ultimate wax... that's what I did there are 2 years ago. At the moment, the motorhome was looking good, but month later, with the sunlight on the right angles... here is the nightmare !
So, I suppose it'll be doable to get rid of the scratches I made...
I will upload pictures to share with you, but for the moment here is a link where you will see the twin of my motorhome, quite exactly the same one as mine.

http://www.viewrvs.com/motorhome/vogue/1988/1988-vogue-35-b.php

[Old Bear]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

See this thread by RoushStage2 on how to upload and then post images.
How to upload and insert an image into your posts (meguiarsonline.com)

[KlemVogue]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

I know how to upload pics here, but I have to reduce the quality of my pictures because they are too big for the pics host website

[KlemVogue]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

Here are pictures. On the first one you can see in the back than the swirls and scratches are quite gone, I've tried a polish there are few month and it seem that I had a result...

Tomorrow, I'll wash carefully the whole RV, I'll start by the roof. Pre-wash, wash, and I'll start to polish the white parts, M67 with a medium pad to start. I ordered wetsanding papers (1000/1200/2000/2500 grit), if necessary. I'd like to do the full 3 step process (M67/M45/M56) in the next few days at the weather is quite perfect for that kind of outdoor activity. (I may will find a place to do it under a shed)

Quite all the color bands are covered by these scratches and / or swirls.

Thank you in advance for your feedback !


]

[KlemVogue]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

[Old Bear]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

Is it possible that the painted parts were cleaned with a brush?
Is it possible that RV went through a drive trough car wash which used brushes or spinners with cloth attached?

[KlemVogue]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

No... I'm quite sure it's me who makes all of these swirls and scratches �� bad buffer with bad pads, bad method... But in the very first picture I share of my RV you can see that the swirls starts to disappear so I hope that it will be doable to get rid of them.

I'm going to try a DA buffer today, and I'll try several pads and polishes combinations. I've got good products now, and the right method.

[KlemVogue]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

Last update.

I started the polishing work. It's much better on the white parts. For swirls and scratches, they seem to disappear if I use a stronger compound than the M67, in my last order the seller gaves me as a goodie a Rupes D.A. blue pad with a little bottle of blue Rupes cutting compound, I had better result. Any similar product in Meguiar's product line ?

Other point. I think my RV is very oxydized. The pads are quickly full of black dirt, even if I use a clay bar before. Does the M771 used with a microfiber mitt could remove a little of this oxydation ? I don't want to use a scrub if possible Here is a pic from the job I did today

[KlemVogue]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

Hello!!

So I started to buff my RV, with the Meguiar's M67. My RV is oxyded, the pad are getting dirty very quickly. I ordered a bottle of meguiar's M49 but it seems that it is less aggressive than the m67? Is it better to remove oxydation than the m67?

The whole process will takes me a bit of time and effort but the results are awesome! I tried the M45 after the m67, the gloss and the colors are even deeper and better!

[Nick Winn]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

Our M771 Marine/RV Heavy Duty Oxidation Scrub can work wonders but is for non painted fiberglass gel coat only.

Our M100 Pro Speed Compound is also a good choice for fiberglass/ gel coat and automotive paint, and is more aggressive than M67.

The pad you have in the above picture is very thick. Make sure you are getting consistent pad rotation w/ moderate pressure on a random orbital dual action polisher. If you are not getting moderate pad rotation with moderate pressure, I would recommend trying a more thin foam pad.

You are welcome to use M45 after any compound step, but keep in mind the M67 has the polish built in, hence the name one step compound. You would still want to apply wax after like M56 or Flagship Premium Marine Wax.

[KlemVogue]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your feedback. Ok, I'll try the M100. The Blue D.A Coarse compound from Rupes with its hard foam pad gives me very good result on colored parts, especially on the brown band in the middle of the coach, but the bottle I had as a goodie is empty so I'll order the M100 to try it. Do you have any advice for pads ? Maybe a microfiber pad ? I was thinking about trying a more aggressive pad than the wool pad I have....

I use a wool pad too, the orange pad you saw in my previous pic was only a try... but the wool pad get dirty very quickly too

For the M771 I hesitated to buy one bottle but as you said it's for the white parts only and I don't want to use a scrub on it, so I'll continue with the combo M100 / M67 + wool pad then M67 foam pad, M45 foam pad and M56 foam pad, all applyed with a Dual Action buffer (10mm orbital movement). I understand that the M67 can be followed directly by the M56 but I really like the deeper color and the better shine the M45 bring after the M67, and I'm ok to work for hours to get a perfectly cared RV I like to do this job. A real pleasure to see the RV coming back to its original condition, even if it was already in mint condition it's clear that the polishing job was necessary ! I'll upload pictures soon

[Nick Winn]

Re: Work on a very scratched fiberglass rv

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your feedback. Ok, I'll try the M100. The Blue D.A Coarse compound from Rupes with its hard foam pad gives me very good result on colored parts, especially on the brown band in the middle of the coach, but the bottle I had as a goodie is empty so I'll order the M100 to try it. Do you have any advice for pads ? Maybe a microfiber pad ? I was thinking about trying a more aggressive pad than the wool pad I have....

I use a wool pad too, the orange pad you saw in my previous pic was only a try... but the wool pad get dirty very quickly too

For the M771 I hesitated to buy one bottle but as you said it's for the white parts only and I don't want to use a scrub on it, so I'll continue with the combo M100 / M67 + wool pad then M67 foam pad, M45 foam pad and M56 foam pad, all applyed with a Dual Action buffer (10mm orbital movement). I understand that the M67 can be followed directly by the M56 but I really like the deeper color and the better shine the M45 bring after the M67, and I'm ok to work for hours to get a perfectly cared RV I like to do this job. A real pleasure to see the RV coming back to its original condition, even if it was already in mint condition it's clear that the polishing job was necessary ! I'll upload pictures soon

If you are wanting to use our pads, I would suggest our Soft Buff D/A Foam Cutting Disc and also would suggest buying a decent amount of them, keeping them clean during your process with a compressed air blow gun, or, after 4-5 attempts, take off backing plate, soak, rinse and wring out in a bucket of water & set out to dry. You can also carefully place the wet pad on your machine, set the machine on the corner of a bucket, and run the machine to spin out the water, then set out to dry.

What size backing plate does your machine have? Below is either our 5 or 6 inch offerings depending on backing plate size:

Soft Buff D/A Foam Cutting Disc - 5 Inch
Soft Buff D/A Foam Cutting Disc - 6 Inch

Keep us posted!