Boat Buff and Polish

anyone have their boat buffed and polished. I have a 94 Sport Nautique. I have some fading towards the rear but not bad for 12 years old. I have seen way worse on way newer boats. Anyway I finally took her in to have it professionally buffed and polished. The guy used to work for Nautique and says it will look like new when I get it back. I hope so. It this point, any care by a professional fiberglass guy will look better than it does. I even tried to polish it myself with something I had layin around....it didnt do anything but give me a arm workout. lol anyway here is a before shot! If you have any experiences with buff and polishing please share. Oh yeah, I am having the painted CF numbers removed so I can have my buddy customize some cool white font letters.



(Message edited by zride on April 17, 2006)

Ya zride a buffing wheel can work wonders. You will be happy when it's done I'm sure. You should show pictures too.

Here is our SN2001 a few months after we bought it. Snap-on high speed polisher, 3M super duty compound on a wool pad and 5 hours later.......

wow....thats incredible. I hope I have the same results that you guys got because your after shots look great!

hey Ryan - it's Ryan - when you did that, it didn't take any of your pin stripe decals off did it? i'm assuming because of the age of the boat, those pin stripes are stickers. I have the marine rubbing compound/wax from 3M - pretty much same stuff you used? I'm worried it's going to peel back those stripes on mine... what did you do? any problems?

Ryan, yes the pin stripes are vinyl and no, the compound did not harm them. It actually polished the scuffs on them in some places as well. The 3M superduty compound is a heavy compound that can be found at most boating stores. Its different than the compound/wax stuff and is very abrasive. More so than any automotive compound I've used.

I detailed cars and worked in a paint/body shop for a few years so I am somewhat experienced with this type of work. Its not overly difficult but you can damage the finish if your not careful or don't know what your doing.

We use meguairs #49 and follow that with there #45 polish. The 3m super duty compound works really good on badly oxidized boats. My 94 sport was slighlty faded on the back corners too, good thing I detail boats for my job.

its done... I am picking her up tomorrow. I will post pics. The guy said everything came out beautiful!

(Message edited by zride on April 19, 2006)

wow....holy moly. They guy did an incredible job. I will be posting pics tomorrow after I repinstripe it. It looks unbelievable. I guess thats what a buff and polish can do for those old faded fiberglass boats out there. If your in the bay are or live in the Disco. Delta area I would highly recommend him. The shop is professional, the equipment is professional, and the staff is professional. The company is called Pro Fiberglass. They are out of Livermore California. The guy in charge is Reeza. Hella cool guy. He used to work for Nautiques in Texas. He put the first flight control tower on the Nautique and tested it with others. Anyway they did a great job and even went as far as to replace the rivited in bimini mounts that were on the boat to nice stainless and buffed out my trailer which was in major need. Pics on the way!

(Message edited by zride on April 20, 2006)

Yes, compounding and waxing can restore faded gelcoat to like-new condition...it is a DIY project but you'll need some time and equipment