Will my gelcoat shine again?

Pulled the stepping pads of of my boat today to buff with oxidation remover. What a difference. The gelcoat under them was perfect after I washed the dirt off. It looked brand new. I didn't know that my gelcoat was all that rough until I saw it. Is there a way to ever achieve this new shine again? I've got Meguire's HD oxidation remover and it's doing a fair job but the shine remains hidden. On a side note; will muratic acid dissolve my decals? Any help would really be appreciated. Thanks, Tate.

I used a product called poli-glow on my 76 century see some before and after pics here.   http://www.pbase.com/jhlewis/boat If your boat can be buffed out go for it. But if its beyond repair or you are just lazy like me try poli-glow. No more waxing ever just a maintence coat once a year. The whole kit cost me $52 I only used 1/2 of it for the whole boat.

Porter Cable orbital sander is the king of shine for the neopro detailer. Here is a link to detailing tips and techniques. I use 3M perfectit II then 3M Glaze. The pad you use realy plays a huge factor into how much cutting the product does. Polish will make the finish dull as it removes scratches and oxidation, the glaze brings back the Shine. Post a question to this site for some high quality feed back; I am sure there are some boat owners subscribing to it.

http://forums.roadfly.org/forums/detailing/

I hope this helps.
Dallas

Neo Pro Detailers site

Well, yes, a sander/grinder..for heavy jobs.
But I concur; a boat that was always well maintained may never need that power.

Mine is a Milwaukee var speed.

This 23 year old boat had an abused chalk-white hull and serious decal-shadows. The gloss is better than the pic indicates

But Beware, its not a CC..

Looks great Jeff! We have a very oxodized 66 Al tyll skier and have tried almost everything. I think I will give the poly-glow a shot before having to shell out for a new gelcoat.

Dude this is what I did and I can't Believe the difference.

1) bought this buffer for $25 http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=46507

2) Used your 3M HD ox remover to remove my old lettering.

3) Used 3M fine cut to buff the whole boat.

4) Used 3M Glaze to protect your gel coat and shine like crazy.

Amazing results. I should probrably put some wax ontop of the glaze, but havn't yet.   I swear my boat was stored in Hell for the past 10 years and would have never thought it would look this good. Just remember that old CC's supposedly have thick Gel Coat; I think they can always come back to life.

Last Advice to give is to use the buffer correctly. I have seen another CC in which the beffer was used more on an angle rather than flat on the boat surface and now it has a lot of divits in the coat.

Yes,
I used wet sanding to cut heavy oxidation and level and remove the ghost image of old lettering.

Glass exposed to sun and some neglect, and glass covered by vinyl can get the same compound treatment and wax, and look the same at first, but the glass that saw exposure for 20 years will oxidize at a faster rate and look crummy quicker than the newly exposed stuff, making the old image reappear. I summize the UV damage goes deeper than the surface, and hastens the future oxidation, sometimes requiring heavy-cut compound every year.

My experience is wet sanding heavy oxidation before compounding produces a longer-lasting finish, that can be maintained with less work (yearly buffer-waxing and ocassional light-cut cleaner then wax every-other year.)
Without the initial wet-sanding, compounding/wax was a yearly job.

This may have been already stated but where do you order polyglow?

[QUOTE=66altyllskier] Wow, ordered my poly-glow almost a month ago and I'd love to tell you how great it is...but I don't have it yet :-(

Did you ever get your order? How did Poli Glow work?

Brent