How To Do A Test Spot on a Boat
Before buffing out an ENTIRE boat, the first thing I want to do and I recommend you do to is to test out the pads, products, tools and techniques you're THINKING about using over the ENTIRE boat and test them out to just one section.
Prove to yourself on the boat in question that your plan of attack is going to work and produce the results you're hoping for and dreaming about in one small section before buffing out the entire boat.
Step 1 - Tape off a specific section to perform your Test Spot
Here's my Test Spot, it's the side of the hull that has both white gel-coat and multi-color gel-coat and all of it is oxidized, dull, stained and chalky looking.
Step 2 - Test the first product, pad and tool of your planned process
For this boat we're going to do a 4 step process including,
Gel Coat Heavy-Cut Oxidation Cleaner
Gel Coat Gloss & Color Restorer
Gel Coat Final Step Polish
Gel Coat Carnauba Wax + Sealant
In the section below I've used the Heavy-Cut Oxidation Cleaner with a wool pad on a rotary buffer and you can see the oxidation has been cut off and the original color can now be seen but I'm not done yet.
I do my test spots all they way through the process because in the real world, once you prove your test spot you're going to buff out your boat all the way through the process.
Step 3 - Buff the test section with any follow-up products in your process
Here I've buffed the test section using the Gel Coat Gloss & Color Restorer with a light foam cutting/polishing pad again with a rotary buffer. You can't really see the improvement in clarity and overall nicer looking finish from the picture but I can as I'm standing in front of the boat.
Step 4: Inspect the results
In the picture below, I've finished the section out by machine polishing with the Gel Coat Final Step Polish with a white foam polishing pad and then hand applied the Gel Coat Carnauba Wax + Sealant. I let the wax dry to a haze and then wiped off the dried reside.
Next I took a few after pictures with a halogen light on the side of the boat to show the end results.
The same light you see reflecting off the blue gel-coat above is also shining off the blue gel-coat section in the below picture. As you can see there's a HUGE difference.
In these next two shots I've just stood back a little ways to take shots from opposite angles.
And that's how you do a Test Spot. The results from this test spot show me the products, pads, tools and process I plan on using over the entire boat worked on a small section and now I have the confidence to repeat the above process over the rest of the boat.
All things being equal, that is as long as the same gel-coat finish is over the rest of the boat, (and it is), it's safe to assume we'll get the same results over the rest of the boat.
