The Miracle of Polishing Compound!

Davidg, looking good! I too like this kind of work because you see results pretty quickly. Looks like you might have to break out the sandpaper if you want to get rid of the ghosting from the old registration letters. Dont forget to clean the hull really well after polishing and before painting or waxing- I like to do a quick wipedown with an acetone rag. The residue left by the polish will keep anything else from sticking properly.

Keep up the good work!

Yup, definitely wetsand. Check and see what level of grit your compound can remove (I know 3M Super Duty can remove 1000 grit scratches) and start there. If that isnt aggressive enough, work backwards until you get results. Then work your way back up to 1000 (or whatever your compound will take out) in increments of ~200. Ive seen some ghosting taken out with 1000 grit, other times it has taken 320.

If you can find a Meguires, 3M or other high quality wet/dry paper in the required grits, let me know where you find it! I resorted to using some cheap stuff that I found at Home Depot or Autozone. The stuff I used worked just fine, but a better paper would have a more uniform grit and will result in fewer fine scratches when youre all done.

Tim,the last time I bought 3m paper was at my local Farm & Fleet,but it has been a couple of years.If you don't mind mail order you could try here-
http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=3M2MF&Category_Code=SM
I have bought my fresh air system from them and some other misc and was happy with their service

8122pbrainard wrote: Dave, Make sure you post the results of wet sanding out the shadow. I'm very interested because I have had problems with getting them out by wet sanding. I've found that the shadow under the decals is the virgin color and the rest of the gel is aged darker.

Pete, Ive found it can be done- but you may have to be pretty aggressive. I restored the deck on my '90 to match the virgin gel under an original warning decal. I also helped Brad restore the fade on the stern of his '86 to match what was underneath the decals. Both required going down to 320 grit.



Gary, thats what Im looking for- except they dont carry anything more aggressive than 1000. The Super Duty compound removes 1000 grit scratches, so I havent had much use for the finer grits. Since I havent been able to find any, it may not even be available from 3M or Meguires. Thanks for the link, though.

Gary, thats the stuff. Now only if it werent so darn expensive! Ill have to look up to see how the P grit converts to the regular scale- I know its not quite the same.