Using Meguiars #44 to Polish Boat

[TheSkipper]

I am in the process of polishing and waxing my boat. I am new to this and have several questions. My plan is to use Meguiars #44 polish, followed by 3M Finesse-It II, followed by Colonite Pure Boat Wax. My boat has white gel coat, and is approximately 4 years old. It has been stored inside about half of the time. It has been washed regularly, but has only been waxed a couple of times.

Earlier this week I started the polishing process with Meguiars #44. I have been using the 6 inch buffer with a synthetic wool bonnet. I squirt a little bit of polish on the bonnet, put it up against the boat and spread it around a little, then start the buffer and work one small area at a time. I use the buffer to spread the polish around for a couple of minutes, generally until there is no longer any hint of orange. The area will have a whitish coating on it. Then I use a clean white terry cloth towel to wipe the area by hand. On some areas, orange polish will appear on the towel, and on other areas, nothing (or maybe some fine white dust-like particles) appears on the towel. After doing three or four small areas like that, I take the 10 inch buffer with a clean wool bonnet and go over the entire area for a few minutes. So far the areas I have done look okay, but they certainly don’t look like new.

My first question has to do with the amount of time I am working the polish. The bottle says to work the polish until it is almost dry, and then wipe it off with a terry cloth towel. Does that mean I should be wiping it off while there is still an orange tint to it? If the polish turns to a white haze, does that mean I worked it too long?

Next, how much pressure should I be putting on the buffer? Should it be hardly any pressure at all so that the pad/bonnet can spin around very quickly? Or should it be moderate pressure so that the bonnet appears to be vibrating and spinning slowly?

[Mike Phillips]

Hi TheSkipper,

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!

Just to make sure, are you using,

M44 Color Restore - A product used to remove oxidation

Or

M45 Boat/RV Polish - A product used to restore gloss to a finish in great shape to start with.


If you're trying to clean the gel coat on your boat, for example remove old wax, remove oxidation, staining etc, then if you're using M45, you're getting all of your cleaning action from the wool pad, not the product and this may not be the right approach depending on what you're trying to accomplish.

[TheSkipper]

My problems all started when I made the mistake of using a scotch-brite pad to scrub a few spots when I was washing my boat. I was left with a dull spots everywhere I did this. After consulting with a number of other boat owners, I was told to start with #44, and that if #44 didn't work, then to progessively move to coarser products. As of right now, I have only used the #44, and it has worked to remove most of the dull spots but not all of them. I was going to try #49 next, as it is my understanding that it is the next coarsest product.

If I use the #49 on any spots, I was going to follow that up with #44. After hitting the whole boat with #44, I was going to use Finesse-It II on the whole boat, followed by Colonite Pure Boat Wax.

My understanding is that #44 is for removing light oxidation, while #49 is for removing moderate oxidation.

[Mike Phillips]

Yes, #49 is more aggressive than M44 but just for everyone that ever reads this thread, both products use diminishing abrasives which will break down.


From your description,

Next, how much pressure should I be putting on the buffer? Should it be hardly any pressure at all so that the pad/bonnet can spin around very quickly? Or should it be moderate pressure so that the bonnet appears to be vibrating and spinning slowly?

It sounds like you're using a dual action polisher like this one?





If this is true, then for the job you're trying to do, this may now be a powerful enough tool and to do the job right you may need to use a rotary buffer. It depends on how hard your gelcoat is and how deep the scouring scratches are.

There is some very detailed information we've writtin on the topic of ocillating/rotating as it relates to this tool which can be found on page 3 of this thread,

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12056

[TheSkipper]

I not using the Meguiars or Porter-Cable dual action polisher. I'm using a couple of cheap Craftsman random orbital buffers. I read the posts you referred me to, and I think you're probably right that the tools I'm using are not powerful enough. But for right now, they are all I have. I will try to adjust my technique based on the thread you referred to me and see if I get better results.

Now, what about the other questions in my first post about working the product until it is nearly dry?

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by TheSkipper
I not using the Meguiar's or Porter-Cable dual action polisher. I'm using a couple of cheap Craftsman random orbital buffers. I read the posts you referred me to, and I think you're probably right that the tools I'm using are not powerful enough. But for right now, they are all I have. I will try to adjust my technique based on the thread you referred to me and see if I get better results.

Bad news, the machines you're using are even less effective than the G100 Dual Action Polisher.

Rotary vs. PC vs. Regular Orbital Buffer

Now, what about the other questions in my first post about working the product until it is nearly dry?

You never want to work a product until it turns dry. At least if the goal is to make the surface look good. When you buff to a dry buff, you have buffed till you have lost lubricity and you have just increased the potential for instilling scratches.

Buff till the product is almost gone, but you still have a wet-film of product on the surface.

Best results from M49 and M44 when trying to remove defects out of a gel-coat finish are going to be had by using a rotary buffer. You can use less powerful tools, but if you do, you'll want to shrink your work area down to small sizes, about the size of a microfiber polishing cloth spread out and possibly even smaller. That's because what you're trying to do is abrade the finish in such a was as to remove small particles of gel-coat in an effort to level the upper most part of the surface with the lowest depth of the defects and tools that oscillate are gentle to the surface and this makes them ineffective.

What it Means to Remove a Scratch

[TheSkipper]

I was afraid of that. I reviewed this forum extensively before asking my questions.

At this point I'm just trying to make my boat look decent for the rest of the summer. I will try the #44 and #49, and if I don't get the results I'm looking for, I'll have to let a professional work on it next spring. With my lack of experience there's no way I'm going to take a rotary buffer to it.

Thanks for your help.