Color restoration

My '82 boat has white hulls with orange decks. I painted the hulls last year with polyurethane and they still look really good. At the same time I tried several different polishing compounds and waxes on the decks to bring the orange color back. They looked pretty good but after a week or two in the sun the surface just hazed right back up again. I was wondering how aggressive a rubbing compound I could use on the decks or am I just weakening the gel coat? Anyone have success with any particular product(s) to bring the color back to their boats?

I had an '81 Hobie14Turbo which had white hulls that looked very faded and stained. Last year I used acetone and a rag and was able to bring back the pure white color with very little effort and then gave it a good wax job.

I don't know how acetone would work on colored gel coat but you could try it on a small test spot. Use the acetone sparingly and wash it off quickly, also beware that as a solvent it may dissolve some of the gel coat.

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Tim
84 H16
82 H16
87 H14T
Tortola Sails: 115222
Blue Prism Sails: 88863
Clearwater, FL

Anyone have any experience with this product?

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/producte/10001/-1/10001/17226/377%20710/0/restore%20fiberglass/Primary%20Search/mode%20matchallpartial/0/0?N=377%20710&Ne=0&Ntt=restore%20fiberglass&Ntk=Primary%20Search&Ntx=mode%20matchallpartial&Nao=0&Ns=0&keyword=restore%20fiberglass&isLTokenURL=true&storeNum=5000&subdeptNum=4&classNum=164

OR this one?

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/producte/10001/-1/10001/244026/377%20710/0/color%20restorer/Primary%20Search/mode%20matchallpartial/0/0?N=377%20710&Ne=0&Ntt=color%20restorer&Ntk=Primary%20Search&Ntx=mode%20matchallpartial&Nao=0&Ns=0&keyword=color%20restorer&isLTokenURL=true&storeNum=5000&subdeptNum=4&classNum=34

look at a product called poly glow demo is on their web site i saw it on ship shape tv looks pretty good i am going to try it on my 21 with dark blue hulls and my kids 14 with white hulls

one of the hobie dealers had a great video on hull fade look at the forum
their system also looked good but you need a large electric polisher to do work

gary

I've had really good results with an old yellow 16 by lightly wet sanding the gel coat being careful not to sand through. Start with 320 grit, then 400, 600. Next use #2 auto polishing compound on an electric buffer. Start with 1/2 of one deck area, buff, then rinse the pad, wring it out, and buff again without adding more compound. Then move to the other 1/2 of the deck. To brighten the treads use a soft scrub brush with compound on it and scrub in a circular motion. After buffing, buff again with a clean dry pad and follow up with marine wax with teflon.

try the surf city cats web site

This demo is on the hulls. A lot of my deck surface is non-skid. Not sure how effective a high speed buffer or electric sanders would work on non-skid.