How do I bring back the white color on hulls ?

I had used the MegGuires three step process and thought my white 18 looked pretty darn good until I got the old decals off the other day. Then I could see the decal outlines in beautiful white in comparison.

How do I bring that white back on the whole boat ? do I have to wet sand and do the thing all over again ? Not really interested in filling nicks and small scratches but I´d like a beautiful white and brilliant finish.

Use a product like Comet or Ajax, I have had great success with a similar product called Barkeepers Friend.

There are other more caustic, more expensive products out there, but Barkeepers Friend gets you 95% of the way there.

Whats that old saying, 80% of the effort goes in to the last 10% of the result.

For me, trying to get any whiter than you can get it with the Barkeepers Friend has been an exercise in frustration and wasted time.

Use it with a limited amount of water, so that as you are cleaning with it it gets almost pasty, and then leave it on till it dries giving the chemicals a chance to do their work.

Also, ya gotta know that you will never ever be able to completely get rid of the decal outlines unless and until you respray the boat with fresh Gelcoat, which is usually way above and beyond what is necessary.

Stephen

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If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, maybe it is time to water your own lawn.

I too have chased this illusive dream. Best to put striping and decals back on if possible. I don't believe any of the striping is available from Hobie so you will need to create your own. I would suggest 3m striping, many colors and shapes, etc. It seems as if the gelcoat under the stripes is thicker, I assume oxidation eats it away a little at a time where it is exposed. If you remove the stripe under the tramp you will not see this, I assume that is since it is protected.

Al,

I went through the wet sanding process and will agree with ncmbm. The gel coat that is exposed to the UV rays will never, in my experience, be as white as the material under the decals. I ordered new stripes off a web site and went right over the top of where the old stripes where. In fact, I made them a little wider to cover the old white edge. It came out awesome. I also added a 18" long Hobie decal which added an updated look to 81 hulls. I can send you before and after pics if you care to see the end result.

Good luck.

The best thing I've used so far has been a product called "Iron Out". I use about a cup in a couple gallons of warm water. Wipe on, spray off. No scrubbing. A really tough layer takes a couple of applications.

Most important thing is to buff and polish the boat after you strip all of the stains off. Jeremy has a good video on Youtube on how to buff out a hull.

On/Off from West Marine. It'll turn anything bright white immediately. Not sure if it will kill kids and pets. Strong irritant. Won't fix sticker shadows I don't think.

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H18, H17 & Various motor boats

The active ingredient in all of these remedies is oxalic acid.

You might be familiar with one of its more well-marketed incarnations:

AJA!! thanks Matt there you've said it all. Oxalic acid is one of the things I use to shine marble in my business.

Speaking of which, I also use diamond wet pads up to 3000 grit to shine granite. We use a pneumatic wet polisher which can go up to 10,000 RPM's. I am tempted to try on an oxidized boat out of the boneyard to see what effect these granite abrasives have on gelcoat, using them with water and regulating RPM's to about 1500. I'm thinking we use diamond abrasives because we must shine with something harder than what we are shining. But, if used wet and with low RPM's I'm thinking it should work just fine on gelcoat with the finer grits. Uh I don't know we might just work right through the gelcoat but I'm going to give it a try.

Last year I refinished the white hulls on my H18, after buying my own boat back from a 13 year hiatus.
I first washed everything down with car wash soap, having already taken everything off the boat except the crossbars. Then I used Number 7 auto polishing compound (the white cream) and did the hullss twice over.
After that I used the McGuiars 3 step process. Color restorer, polish and 3 coats of wax. Like others I was surprised at the raised gel coat under the stripe once I removed it. I replaced the boring 3 tone gray stripe with a 3 tone blue stripe from West Marine, which matches the boat beautifully.

These other bleaching products sound interesting. Any adverse effect on the gel coat? I have powdered oxalic acid at home, used to bleach wood and old floors.

Next year, an additional final step will be to use Hull Kote, by the same folks who make Sail Kote. It is supposed to penetrate into the gel coat and not only bring up the shine to gloss, but cut down on the water beading you get with wax products.

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Chris
'88 H18SE Arís

No adverse effect on the gel.

Oxidation creates microscopic pitting. These products will clean out these pits, which is essential for the best possible results. If the pits are not cleaned out first (by whatever product or method you choose), you will sand, or polish, the "dirt" into the gel.

+1 google Jeremy's polishing video. I've tried both wet sanding and polishing compound. Polishing is faster. The resulting difference is negligible.

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Sheet In...Max Out
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