Wetsanding

Now that the boat runs, time to get back to some other projects. The decals have been peeling a bit around the edges so I took one off last night just to see how different it was underneath.   There was just a little ghosting not real bad, but more than i could get rid of with the supplies I had around. Looks like there is going to be at least a light wetsanding of the blue stripe on the sides.   

The pin stripe above and below the area is in perfect shape and I would like to save it, can it be masked off, and will that cause my results to poor?   All the Silver Cloud gel looks fine, and the color change is slight enough that I'm not going to bother doing the transom, I just need enough so the new stickers won't look funny if they are in exactly the same place.

Oh dear, you can't buy those stripes anywhere? Mine are really toast and I was very hopeful I could just buy new ones.

I think you can mask and wetsand. I seem to recall seeing that on a video about gel coat at some point. Try it somewhere non-obvious and see if you are satisfied. I'm sure that any "flaws" would only be able to be seen by you.

So far masking them off seems to be working. I thought about making a new one from 2 strips, but after the trouble I had covering them with masking tape, I'm guessing that wouldnt end up very straight.

Starboard side turned out great first try, haveing a bit of trouble on the post side with some scratches from the 400 grit I used. I think I tried to rush it to much so I get to spend some more time sanding before the stickers go back on. Only bad part of it so far is the 100 degree weather, it would have been an better winter project.

Billy has the humidity to deal with as well, we're very dry this year so that helps some. When I was finishing up the starter issue last weekend, I was straightening up the boat and putting th interior back in place.   The wife was ready to hit the lake, but at 2:00 or so there is no shade in the back seat for about an hour.   I pulled out my infrared thermometer because it felt really warm. The carpet was 164, the asphalt in the driveway was only 135 and the official air temp was 99. I'm fine in the shade, but I just can't get much done in the sun when it's that hot. I've got a feeling that August is going to be particularly miserable around here this year.

Gary S wrote: [QUOTE=8122pbrainard] Here's the "modest" home being built directly across the street from me. I'm sure his AC bill will be slightly more!! The picture is deceiving. The house is actually deeper that it's width. The sq. footage is over 6000. QUOTE] If this is across the street from you Pete,why is there a for sale sign on your side???

Gary,
You are very observant!!! The house next to me is a "tear down" it just went up for sale last week. Actually, I hope it goes soon. It will help my own resale value. They are still building the "mega" houses in my area!!

I don't know how this happened, but I ordered decals from Whitlake on Friday evening, got an email saying they were ready to go and boxed on Saturday, and they were on my porch this afternoon. Very glad they got here so quick, but it makes you wonder why the post office is loosing so much money. I think it was double the price for UPS 2 day and it wouldn't have been here till Wednesday.

I'm reworking it right now, originally I went with 1000 and 1500 by hand, one side was great the other I rushed. I'm going back to get everything out with 1200 and 1500 discs on my orbital sander and then 3M finesse it II compound on a wool pad with a rotaty polisher. I've heard the rotary is needed to get enough heat for the compound and an orbital won't. That leaves some fine scratches that you can see at just the right angle (looking down the hull with my ear on the boat) so I'm going to do a round of swirl remover/polish before I'm done. My local Napa has the Finess It stuff in quarts and it's a bit spendy at $40 so I'm hoping I can find a smaller size while I'm in Austin this week. If I weren't redoing the stickers I would call it good after the compound, but I'm nervous about deciding to remove the swirl later and messing up the new stickers. I'm probably going a bit over board.

The sander makes a huge difference, I did try just compounding and buffing a spot, I couldn't tell I did anything when I was done. I've still got to do the registration numbers, I'll see what the bare minimum is using the sander. Maybe I can get away with just one pass of 1500 and then compound. .

I'll let you know what I used for the swirl, my wool pad blew apart Saturday evening or I'd be done, got another one today, but it was just too hot and still so we put the boat in the lake. I hope to get it done tommorow and have the sticker back on Thursday or Friday.

Well I was going to take some pictures in the usual spot, maybe tommorow, so I could see the difference for myself. As you can see, she came out very shiney, still need to wax so I'm thinking it will get even better.

OK, I'm sure you all see the issue, the new lettering is black not gray. I think I like it, but need to make some changes to the rest of the graphics for it to work. No I didn't look at the stickers until they were on the boat, I did wonder why the backs had black on them, but didn't investigate far enough.

Here is what I'm thinking, remove the white CC sticker on the rear and replace it with a black with gray shadowed sticker exactly the same, globe stays where it is. Then redo the Reg#'s in black with a blue outline where the white is now. Any thoughts? I thought about changing the gray stripe to black and gray, but that would be the most difficult solution, I'm not real slick working with the stickers.

Alright here it is, I tried to do this about a week ago and lost the whole post some how so better late than never.

I wet sanded all the areas that had ghosting starting with 600 and moved 1200 and 1500. each time I went a little beyond the last and the stipes were masked. then I did the complete blue stripe with a wool pad and some cheapo compound I found at Ace. I followed that with 3M Perfect It Compound on a white pad and did the complete side with the stripe still masked. I finished with a 3M Perfect It Machine Polish on a black pad stripes and all. The pictures Marty posted were before a coat of Collonite Fleetwax.