Removing Hull Oxidation

Hey every one. Cleaned out and lubed all the mechanical parts today using a steam cleaner, simple green, McLube, went pretty well. Now on to the hulls. Its a H16 1981 with yellow hulls that have some oxidation. I planned on using 3M Marine Super Duty Rubbing Compound, with a random orbit polisher(or by hand?) and then some restorer/wax. If this doesnt work I might try to wet sand but im not sure if I have the facilities for that.
My question is: should I remove wax or old residue with anything before using the rubbing compound? I also used it today on the rudders but it seemed to make the stains swirl around and get worse. Is there a stain remover or something I should use before the Rubbing Compound?

I've found the best way to refinish hulls back to factory shine is the following:

Fill all scratches & dings with 3M Fairing Compound, sand smooth with 120 grit 3M Sandblaster dry sandpaper (doesn't clog)

Spray gel coat on visible repairs, sand smooth with 120 grit dry (be careful not to sand through).

Starting with repaired areas, and increasing the sanded area as you go up in grits, wet sand with 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000 grit by hand (use a rubber sanding block on flat surfaces). On the last two grits, you should go over the entire boat.

Using a machine polisher with a fleece head, go over the entire boat with 3M Heavy Duty Rubbing Compound. By now, the boat will have a nice shine, but you're not done yet.

Again using the polisher, this time with a foam head, use 3M Finesse-it II polishing compound on the whole boat. When you're done, the boat will shine like a mirror.

To preserve the shine and seal up the gel coat (it's porous), use 3M Liquid Marine Wax. To save your arms, you can use your orbital buffer to polish it.

I've found that the orbital buffers sold at Home Depot and Lowes don't have enough power to effectively compound the boat. Doing it by hand is brain damage.

You need a good, rotary polisher to do the work:

DO NOT USE AN ANGLE GRINDER FOR THIS JOB. The speeds are wrong and you'll burn it out. Been there done that (three times). I got my polisher from Auto Zone for about $60 and it's been fine.

To do a 16 with this method (and it doesn't need a whole lot of repairs) will take you an entire day. In addition to a boat that looks like new, you'll have arms like Hercules when you're done.

are we talking about hulls with no paint. if so, which i think you are, can i just use compound on my painted hulls and go from that step on or should i sand it? pretty sure that would scratch the hell out of the hulls. but i really don't know so correct me if i'm wrong, which i probably am.

This method is for non-painted hulls.

Do not use it on painted hulls. Bringing back the finish on painted hulls usually means re-painting them after extensive prep work.

I wanted to avoid sanding if possible, is there any disavantage to trying the rubbing compound first and if that doesnt work go to sanding? Also im not sure if I can rent a polisher but if not I thought about the porter cable 7424. Its a random orbit model but definitely more industrial strength.

This is what we used to use for buffing out cars. I think we used a variable speed model on the slowest setting. 15 amp motor won't burn out.

Cool, thanks. Was looking around a bit more and found the "vertglas system." What I like is that this has an "oxidation remover" which to me seems like the majority of the problem. Once the oxidation is removed then use a restorer to put oils and such back into the gelcoat and then a sealer/wax for protection. Anyone ever used this stuff?