oxidized nightmare!!

[donavin629]

hey everyone..im new here and Im having a hard time with an oxidized RV.. my steps on the right side worked out great.. now that im working on the left side.. totally different reaction.. I cant win with this gel coat **** lol… im not a fan of gel coat at all now.. but I need to figure this out since there are tons of boats here for me to work on.. plus the RV parks.

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Using a Marine compound.. followed up by System1 polish… what was happening was the pattern from my machine were being left behind… so if you looked at the rv from the side.. you can see where my Makita or cyclo was going side to side and top to bottom.. so it was really blotchy and ugly.. it def shined up but I cant let that go this way.. my customer wont notice it in the sun.. but give my customer a cloudy day and he looks at it at the right angle.. hes gonna see how ugly of a job it is.

So this is what I did.. went back to Sail and Ski where I bout the marine compound.. explained to them what was going on.. they had their detailer come up from the shop to talk with me..he knew exactly what I was talking about .. he said he sees it all the time.. and the only next step is wet sanding.. I asked if there was any other way cause im not charging the customer enough for that work.

He said not really… I asked him why one side went better than the other.. he said .. all depends on where the sun is hitting.. he said the one side could be in the shade a lot more that the other.

Example.. he said.. sometimes boats come in and the sides come out fine.. but the back is a pain in the butt because the sun was setting on that boat everyday so the back of it had to be wet sanded.

Well I went back and used 1500 grit sand paper .. then tried to use the marine compound with wool pad.. was not taking the scratches out.. I had to go over it a couple of times.. so I said forget this.. there has to be an easier way.. I felt I was making more work for myself.

Can someone help me out please… as this will be a large majority of my work here in Austin.

Im looking for a product that can cut through this oxidation and leave a clean finish.. I don’t mind going over it maybe once or twice.. but I don’t want to create more work for myself

The pics are kinda hard to see since its white.. but you can see a little of whats going on.

can someone help me and recommend a product and process that will cut through these oxidized gel coats in a rather fast time frame

[Mike Phillips]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

Since this is your first post here on our forum, welcome to Meguiar's Online!

Using a Marine compound.. followed up by System1 polish…

Which Marine Compound?

what was happening was the pattern from my machine were being left behind…

So we need to look at the things touching the gel-coat, that would be your,

• Choice of pad
• Choice of chemical

Somethings leaving scratches/swirls behind.

he said he sees it all the time.. and the only next step is wet sanding..

This doesn't sound right. Buffing with the right pads and chemicals should remove the oxidation and restore a high gloss, swirl-free finish.

Sanding, (that's putting scratches into the gel-coat), is just a little too extreme for the problem you're having.

He said not really… I asked him why one side went better than the other.. he said .. all depends on where the sun is hitting.. he said the one side could be in the shade a lot more that the other.

Example.. he said.. sometimes boats come in and the sides come out fine.. but the back is a pain in the butt because the sun was setting on that boat everyday so the back of it had to be wet sanded.

It's true that sometimes you might need to wet-sand to remove enough bad material to get to a fresh base but that doesn't sound like what you need to do on this project.

Some gel-coats can be very, very hard and for this reason you want to be very careful about putting sanding marks into the finish, it might become very difficult to remove them all.

Well I went back and used 1500 grit sand paper .. then tried to use the marine compound with wool pad.. was not taking the scratches out.. I had to go over it a couple of times.. so I said forget this.. there has to be an easier way.. I felt I was making more work for myself.

See my comments above...

Can someone help me out please… as this will be a large majority of my work here in Austin.

I'm looking for a product that can cut through this oxidation and leave a clean finish.. I don’t mind going over it maybe once or twice.. but I don’t want to create more work for myself

If we assume the compound you mentioned at the beginning of your post is not a Meguiar's Marine compound, lets start there. Find a Marine supply store that carries M91 Power Cut Compound and M50 Boat Cleaner/Wax and pick up a quart of the M91 and a 16 ounce bottle of the M50 Cleaner/Wax.

Now try re-buffing a section that that looks splotchy using this compound with a wool pad on your Makita rotary buffer. Buff a section about a foot and a half square and then wipe off the residue and inspect.

Follow this with the M50 using your rotary buffer with a foam pad or with your cyclo polisher and inspect the results and the let us know how it turned out.





M49 Oxidation Remover is the least aggressive of these 3...

M67 One Step Compoundis next in line and was designed more for hand application but can be used by machine for 2000 grit or finer

M91 Power Cut Compound is the most aggressive...It was designed to remove up to 1000 - 1200 grit on gel coat by rotary machine but can also be used by hand.

[Superior Shine]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

Im looking for a product that can cut through this oxidation and leave a clean finish.. I don’t mind going over it maybe once or twice.. but I don’t want to create more work for myself

If thats the case then try this -

Use #49 with a DA and use the maroon w7006 pad. Use moderate pressure and over lap your passes. Arm speed should be that it allows the product to do the work.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

If thats the case then try this -

Use #49 with a DA and use the maroon w7006 pad. Use moderate pressure and over lap your passes. Arm speed should be that it allows the product to do the work.

This approach might work but he didn't say if he had a DA Polisher? He did list that he owned a rotary buffer and a Cyclo Polisher so we tried to keep the recommendations for the tools he already owned.

Joe has a good point, sometime in the future you're going to probably want to invest in a DA polisher although you can get similar results with the Cyclo. Plus Joe's buffed out a lot of RV's so maybe even try the M49 with your Cyclo if you don't own a DA style polisher. (Porter Cable or Meguiar's G110)

Here's what M50 looks like,

M5016 One Step Boat Cleaner/Wax

[beeser]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

I realize pictures can be deceiving but the one shown looks exactly like my RV before using a 3-step process of #49 Oxidation Remover, #45 Polish and finally #63 Flagship Wax. Everything but the wax was applied with a PC. The most heavily oxidized areas received two applications of the Oxidation Remover. Feel fortunate that the roof was not included in your work as with mine.

Initially I tried using #44 Color Restorer for the first step but decided to be a little more aggressive on the more oxidized surfaces and just continued with the same product on the other areas.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

I realize pictures can be deceiving but the one shown looks exactly like my RV before using a 3-step process of #49 Oxidation Remover, #45 Polish and finally #63 Flagship Wax.

And can you share your results?

[donavin629]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

thanks for the welcome

Which Marine Compound? I was using my regular polish by system 1 because they stated that it should work on all vehicles.. but no matter what I tried it was coming out bad.. I used my makita with a wool pad.. foam pads.. yellow .. green..etc.. slow speeds.. high speeds… also the cyclo.. with different color pads.. finally I tried some of my optimum compound.. which I have not touched in a while since I started using system 1.. but in the end it was all coming out the same.. just blotchy marks left behind… so I went to local boat shop and picked up starbrite marine compound.. a light and aggressive product.. did a little better with the wool.. but in the end.. same results..



Why im posting on here is because I know meguiar a well known product.. and I have been researching the RV and Gel coat products.. but I need to know that this works before I purchase anything.. does anyone have before or after pictures? im waiting a call back from Tom Mcdonald from support to talk to him more about these products.. but i dont wanna spend any more money if i dont have to .. id like to have some proof.. since i am still in the start up phase of my company.. my money needs to be spent wisely

[Markus Kleis]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

donavin629-

First of well, welcome to MOL! We are glad to have you with us.

Secondly, in the future try to avoid typing your messages in Word because it creates really bad coding issues and will trip our automatic spam filter. If possible, type in the Advanced Reply box and use your browser's built-in spell checker.

Thanks!

Mark

[SHYNEMAN123]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

This trailer was parked along side a building and the lt side had far more sun exposure than the right side.

I washed it down with a water based degreaser mixed 5:1 and used a soft brush.
Hand clayed and than D/A with #83 cleaner polish and a yellow 6" pad.

[beeser]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

Here are a couple of pics showing my finished work.

[Maserati Mario]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

nu'uh

[donavin629]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

your pics are not showing... but i had to let that one rv go..like i said it shined up really nice..and the customer was bugging out when he saw it.. it was a big improvement.. but was not good enough for me.. im still gonna look into the products everyone suggested... i will have more ugly oxidized nightmares coming my way.. so i will have some test dummies..

here is the before and after.. hard to see cause of the white but.. its a big improvement

BEFORE


AFTER

[beeser]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

Sorry about the pics not showing. Here are a couple of links to them instead.

http://s698.photobucket.com/albums/vv341/beeser2/?action=view&current=June202009014.jpg

http://s698.photobucket.com/albums/vv341/beeser2/?action=view&current=June202009002.jpg

[Maserati Mario]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

Here I'll posted them for you

[beeser]

Re: oxidized nightmare!!

Thanks Maserati Mario! The first 2 pics show the finished work. The last 3 show mostly how it looked before the 3-step process mentioned earlier. I'm happy with the results for the most part. I was not able to restore the original luster on some sections (front and top) but it is now much better than before. It's hard to describe the difference because both shine but the less desirable areas look more like a matte finish than a wet gloss.

BTW, what was I doing wrong in posting the pictures? I selected the "insert image" icon and pasted the address for the picture.