hull polishing tips?

[symondo]

thought id have a bash at giving her a scrub since the weather is nicer and its decent enough in the evenings to break out some polish and wax.

out of sunlight... i used a machine polisher and some meguiars boat polish last night, went on great, come of.... ok-ish.

i gather a lot of it was i was maybe covering an area slightly too large, as i reduced the areas i was woring on which seemed to help but still thought i was havin gto put a lot of pressure into the bugger to get the polish off

Also kept missing bits with 'white blindness' and could only tell my stepping away to look for a reflection and the 'non reflection' of the un treated part.

anyone got any tips?

 

[Stats007]

Use a strip of masking tape to mark off the section you're working on and overlap it when moving on to the next. A spray bottle of water / Megs Last Touch diluted applied onto the pad or a mist to the surface you're working on helps.

 

[Bazzer]

Where Polaroid sun glasses, it does help

 

[rosssavage]

Use 3m Finesse it for your polish. It doesn't need to be buffed off - just keep the machine running until it all disappears.

Start the machine of at its slowest speed, and gradually increase speed as the polish works, until it's all gone. Contrary to popular belief, the polish needs to get warm to work effectively.

DO NOT let it get hot though - that way lies gel burn. This is a bad thing.

 

[salar]

Tip 1 - use a good polisher, the ones that look a bit like an angle grinder, not those cheap two handles jobbies
Tip 2 - use the correct level of cutting fluid for the dullness of your hull. If you use a very fine grade on a badly dulled hull not much will happen. Use a coarser grade first
Tip 3 use a spray bottle of water to keep the surface lubricated
Tip 4 read my article here http://www.boat-angling.co.uk/Hints_and_Tips/Howtopolishaboathull.htm

 

[P4Paul]

thought id have a bash at giving her a scrub since the weather is nicer and its decent enough in the evenings to break out some polish and wax.

out of sunlight... i used a machine polisher and some meguiars boat polish last night, went on great, come of.... ok-ish.

i gather a lot of it was i was maybe covering an area slightly too large, as i reduced the areas i was woring on which seemed to help but still thought i was havin gto put a lot of pressure into the bugger to get the polish off

Also kept missing bits with 'white blindness' and could only tell my stepping away to look for a reflection and the 'non reflection' of the un treated part.

anyone got any tips?

I take it you are using Meguiars number 45 which as you know is just a polish and used on clean and near perfect finishes. It can be that you just need to clean the gelcoat before polishing as dirt picked up in the product will cause No45 to be hard to clean up. Not cleaning the polishing pad often enough will also cause issues.

You may also want to check the speed of the polisher and make sure you are using a polishing pad and not a cutting pad.

To keep an edge that is visible, I do two simple things - wear polaroid sunglasses (as already recommended) and leave a thin strip of product on the right hand edge of my work (I work from left to right).

 

[symondo]

Ah

OK. Yeah its 1 of the cheaper buffers that I had from a while ago.

I would guess I may of needed to swap the pad for a cleaner 1 after a while after comparing it to the new ones I got.

I did give it a clean beforehand and dried too before polish. It's Definately made a difference, guess I just need to do a better job lol

I'll check out these glasses they sound helpful, I'll also add what I refer to as a power mop (that's what they called it in the body shop ages ago) to the requirements list.