oxidation

[danielcasey01]

I have a 2008 SX230 HO and the starboard side is very oxidized. Got it last summer and I am guessing the old owners had this side facing the sun. Hull is red and white and I have the detail guy there today but he does not seem to be able to bring the luster back.
Any suggestions, tips or ideas?

 

[djetok]

I have a 2008 SX230 HO and the starboard side is very oxidized. Got it last summer and I am guessing the old owners had this side facing the sun. Hull is red and white and I have the detail guy there today but he does not seem to be able to bring the luster back.
Any suggestions, tips or ideas?

Pics would help a lot.

It could be color sanding and compounding to Buffing with a glaze. For example, I just purchased a 02 tundra with 80k miles. It set outside a lot with little care for the paint. I had to use 3m med duty compound , then a med glaze swirl remover, then 3m finesse it , then washed with dawn soap and then rejexed it. I had approximately 8 hours on it, but the paint is almost flawless now.

 

[danielcasey01]

Thank you for the tip!! Will give it a shot.

 

[zipper]

Orange and White? It took me a couple of days of wetsanding, polishing and waxing on our 07 AR230. It makes a difference.

 

[Dave burke]

Very nice @zipper. I have a 1995 chaparral that I’m planning to do. How many hours would you say it took you? And which products did you use?

 

[zipper]

Very nice @zipper. I have a 1995 chaparral that I’m planning to do. How many hours would you say it took you? And which products did you use?

This was my OP after removing the oxidation. https://jetboaters.net/threads/the-...et-boat-today-thread.2661/page-42#post-230335 I used 3m wet/dry 1000 and 2000 grit paper to wet sand. I used up a Saturday to wetsand the orange topsides with 1000 and then most of Sunday with the 2000. I then used Marine 31 products, Marine 31 boat care products, boat detail products, best boat wax Heavy cut oxidation remover, polishing compound and wax applied and buffed out with a variable speed porter cable D/A polisher. I have since added a variable speed rotary polisher with a wool pad that works well to remove oxidation, since the sailboat is so much bigger. This was the kit I initially purchased in 2017. Porter Cable 7424xp Marine 31 Boat Oxidation Removal Kit

 

[mrcleanr6]

yep zipper got it right. sand, compound and polish. the only thing and which is why it took zip so long to do is that he wetsanded by hand and went to 2000 grit. 2000 and finer is needed for paint but totally unnecessary for gelcoat. you can end gelcoat at 1000 and it will buff out like butter. i just did a 242 here last week, dark blue. pulled decals and it was probably just a little worse than zip's pictures. had the whole thing done in about 5-6 hours. looked like a brand new boat. depending on how bad it oxidized you can start with 600 if you want or maybe 1000 is all that is needed. you would have to make the call. you can sand with a da sander with a soft interface pad on it. you can sand it dry with 3m finishing film then start your compound/polish process.

 

[Dave burke]

Good info guys, thx. I’ll have a look at your post @zipper.

@mrcleanr6 whats a da sander with a soft interface pad. I think I have something like that but could you explain more? Thx

 

[mrcleanr6]

A random orbital sandal or also called dual action sander. It orbits and the pad spins. Most sanders you buy today either elec or air are almost always a da. A soft interface pad is a 1/2” thick soft foam pad with velcro both sides. This sticks to the hard foam rubber pad on the sander then your sanding disc attaches to that. Its mostly for allowing you to do contoured pars with a sander but when doing finer grits and color sanding it makes a super even pressure across the disc so the grit sands at an even and more consistent depth. Also the disc will run cooler so there is less loading. You need one of these to color sand for buffing.

 

[johhnyboat]

looks great @zipper

 

[Dave burke]

A random orbital sandal or also called dual action sander. It orbits and the pad spins. Most sanders you buy today either elec or air are almost always a da. A soft interface pad is a 1/2” thick soft foam pad with velcro both sides. This sticks to the hard foam rubber pad on the sander then your sanding disc attaches to that. Its mostly for allowing you to do contoured pars with a sander but when doing finer grits and color sanding it makes a super even pressure across the disc so the grit sands at an even and more consistent depth. Also the disc will run cooler so there is less loading. You need one of these to color sand for buffing.

got it, many thanks

 

[zipper]

yep zipper got it right. sand, compound and polish. the only thing and which is why it took zip so long to do is that he wetsanded by hand and went to 2000 grit. 2000 and finer is needed for paint but totally unnecessary for gelcoat. you can end gelcoat at 1000 and it will buff out like butter. i just did a 242 here last week, dark blue. pulled decals and it was probably just a little worse than zip's pictures. had the whole thing done in about 5-6 hours. looked like a brand new boat. depending on how bad it oxidized you can start with 600 if you want or maybe 1000 is all that is needed. you would have to make the call. you can sand with a da sander with a soft interface pad on it. you can sand it dry with 3m finishing film then start your compound/polish process.

I did wet sand by hand. If I could have located 1000 grit discs for the D/A, none off the shelf in my area, I would have used it. However by hand, I could get the feel of what was happening under my hand to the gelcoat. You are right, learned on auto paint back in the 70's. First time sanding gelcoat and I did not want to get too aggressive and take too much off with the polisher and sanding discs, until I knew what I know now.

 

[Jilly Ruby Jane]

The most common way to remove your oxidation is to polish it

 

[finnrigged]

Reviving another thread that is a bit older but hey...isn't that what I'm supposed to do first? Search for the answers, scratch my head AND THEN post I just bought this 2007 SX230 HO and took some 3 part 3M products to it on a test area with a HFT electrical buffer with a 6" firm pad with the cutting compound, then medium pad with the "machine polish step B" and finally the softer pad with the hand polish Step C. This would take forever but I'm willing to put in the time. My concern is maybe I am not going deep enough with the existing oxidation and then just have it come back? Is it the wet sanding with 1k the thing that really gets in deep to remove that top layer of compromised oxidized jel coat? Is it a no-brainer to just:

1. Wet sand 1000
2. Maybe hit it with 1500 or 2k if I have an extra half day in my life
3. THEN start the buffing compound series A: 3M or other rubbing compound, 3M machine polish, 3M buffing compound
4. Then a few coats of a good high quality wax?

 

[mrcleanr6]

From what i can tell in the picture it looks like your going to need to sand that a bit. Either with 1000 or 600 then 1000. No need to take gelcoat beyond 1000 grit. Once its all sanded out then a rotary buffer with a wool cutting pad and some gelcoat compound. Run the buffer about 2000-1800 rpm. Get the gel looking as perfect as you can before moving to polish. Once everything looks good then move to polish with a white or black foam polishing pad. You shouldnt need a third step. It should look perfect before you wax it. Dont rely on the wax to give you the finish you want. The wax just seals and protects only

 

[finnrigged]

I thought I replied to this already but must not have hit send? Thank you so much for the advice. I really look forward to getting past the mechanical issues on this thing so I can get to the cosmetic if everything else works out! Thank you again

 

[Julian]

So I've been working on some oxidation on the boat today and looking for your guidance. I've made a pretty good dent with Meguiars oxidation remover followed by a good wax, but you can still make out the line. Do I need to sand it, or just keep going with the oxidation removed with more passes?

Before:


After:

 

[Julian]

It actually looks worse in the after photo than it appears in person. You can see where the cover reaches down to!

 

[mrcleanr6]

julian, if it were me i would give the gel a light sanding with some 1000 grit. you can do it by hand if you want with some wet/dry paper or an orbital sander with some 1000 grit finishing film. by hand will be quite a bit of work. black or any dark color is always tough. you need to get rid of all the oxidation and get down to good gel then bring the shine back with compound and polish. you can certainly keep compounding and it will continue to get better but it may take a long time. the sanding route will probably be faster. if you continue with compound then get it completely gone 100% before moving on to the polish. the polish is only to remove the swirls from the compounding step.

 

[zipper]

Wet sanding is a lot of work, but gets great results if done right. I did that on the 23' Yamaha topsides. However, on our 35' Bene, there was too much oxidized surface for one old guy to sand. I chose to use https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40066659/ and really liked what the one step did for that 31 yo white gelcoat. I did use a rotary with a wool pad. I did follow up with this wax applied with a D/A. https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40066668/