Scratch Removal - 2023 Black

[Edge540je]

4th of July was amazing on the lake but I got burned by a floating dock. Thoughts on these scratches. Where would I start to remove these. They are not deep.
any help would be appreciate.

 

[adrianp89]

Wet sand. YouTube.

 

[FSHER]

4th of July was amazing on the lake but I got burned by a floating dock. Thoughts on these scratches. Where would I start to remove these. They are not deep.
any help would be appreciate.

Hello,

This has worked for me but I'm not a pro just a DIYer. everyone has their own way of doing things.

With masking tape, tape off the rub rail, decals and anything else in the area that you don't want to mess up.

I would start wet sanding with ,maybe 800 grit sandpaper( to remove the scratches), then 1000, then 1500 and finish with 2000. if you're feeling good take it up to 3000.

It looks like one scratch is close to a body line. I would tape off the body line and stay far away from it when sanding and polishing. body lines are easy to burn thru when sanding or polishing. for the scratches near the rub rail. Maybe start with 800 far away from the rail and move up in grits as you get closer to it. Basically, i wouldn't bring the 800 grit all the way to the rub rail.

But you could also do this backwards just to see what grit removes the scratches and than go back to the high grits. so start with 2000, 1500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000. you might remove the scratches with 1000 grit and would be able to skip the more aggressive 800 grit. Its more time but a little more "safe", in my opinion.

With the 800, stay in the area of the scratches and with each grit increase, increase the sanding area by an inch or so. the key with each grit is to remove ALL of the previous grits scratches and to stay as flat as possible and don't go deeper than the black gel coat.

for gel coat you can usually get away with a rotary polisher but a dual action is easier and more forgiving, in my experience. After sanding start with a wool pad and a medium cut polish, if you still see scratches, time to start over from the beginning but if you see swirl makes than move to a foam pad and a fine/finish/machine polish compound.

the surface will get warm but don't let it get to hot as it can burn. so you want to slowly move the polisher around, do a couple passes, wipe with a micro fiber cloth to check progress and do a couple more passes but change the direction each time.

3M makes a 3 stage compound kit that I've used on my cars and it has been fantastic for me. for my boat I used Meguiar's compound from harbor freight that I had laying around and a dirty wool pad and have been impressed at the outcome.

If you haven't done this type of stuff before a boat is a great starting point and is far more forgiving than a car. watch a few videos, spend some money on tools and go to town.

-Mark

 

[biffdotorg]

I pulled my boat for a concert on a nearby lake Saturday. So yesterday I started this process on my old decal ghost images.

Biggest word of advice, trust the process and take your time. By the looks of those, you may want to start with rubbing compound and only go to wet sand if it does not achieve the outcome you are wanting. As a good rubbing compound may make your rag black with gelcote just enough to put those scratches to bed.

I had ghost images of the "high output" and "twin engine" decals removed from my boat. I started with 1500 grit wet sanding. And you have never seen a more nervous person when I turned those easily legible words into a cloud of swirls. It looked horrible, and I thought to myself, what have I done. Trust the process.

But then moved to rubbing compound with a small orbital, to wax with small orbital to the large buffer and it turned out well. So good that I am now on that last two decals today and small scratches. And many of the scratches went away starting at the compound stage. Same with heavy oxidation.

Pictures would help this thread, but those will come when I am happy with the final job.

Good luck

 

[DiggerPA]

I watched Drakes detailing on YouTube. Followed exactly what he said to do in his videos, and took out very similar, if not worse scratches.

Drake's Detailing

At Drake's Detailing, We aim to educate boat detailers, boat owners and captains to better take care of their vessels!

www.youtube.com