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Old 06-04-2013, 05:05 PM   #1
Mike Phillips
 
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Status: Director of Training
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 675
Default More steps usually equals better results...

More steps usually equals better results...



Just decide how nice of a finish you want and then choose how many steps you want to do. Here's an example from this 2000 24' Baja we're going to buff out Thursday night.






Before Thursday I went out and did some buffing showing the before and after results from buffing three different sections using,

1-Step: All-In_One Gel Coat Polish & Wax .

3-Steps: Gel Coat Heavy-Cut Oxidation Cleaner + Gel Coat Gloss & Color Restorer + All-In_One Gel Coat Polish & Wax.

4-Steps: Gel Coat Heavy-Cut Oxidation Cleaner + Gel Coat Gloss & Color Restorer + Gel Coat Final Step Polish + Gel Coat Carnauba Wax + Sealant.



This first picture shows the gel-coat in its original condition. There is zero gloss or clarity to the finish.






This second section is after buffing the gel-coat using a one-step cleaner/wax. The surface is now shinier because it's smoother and has wax protection. Not bad for a one-step and a lot of people would be happy to go from the before condition to these kind of results in one step and be done.







This next section was compounded, polished and then a one-step cleaner/wax was applied and the gloss and clarity are dramatically better than both the control and the previous section where only one-step was performed.






In this next section I compounded, polished, polished a second time with a fine cut polish and then hand applied a finishing wax and now the results are like show room new.






Each approach works and as you can see, anytime you're working on severely neglected gel-coats you will generally get better results by performing more steps.




The most important lesson to learn from this demonstration is this...

Frequent boat care is easy boat care...

Actually, frequent boat care is easy and FAST boat care. That is, if you just bought a brand new boat or if you just had your boat detailed, then NOW is the time to start regularly maintaining the gel-coat finish so it doesn't go bad in the first place.

If your gel-coat finish is already in great shape it's very fast and easy to buff around the boat ONE TIME and maintain the current condition.

As time goes by, neglect will take her toll and then you'll have to do more steps to get better results and that will mean more time, energy and investment.


Frequent boat care is easy boat care...


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