I’m out of Destin I’m a auto refinisher. Worked off darks repair and gelcoat for acouple of months. Fell in love working with gelcoat trying too start a gelcoat refinishing/detailing/upholstery shop i love your videos thank you for your info killer videos keep them up!!
Very informative and detailed as always! If you’re looking for topic suggestions, I’d love to see a segment just on pad selection. How you marry them up to the products and situation.
Struggled to find the right products and giving both Menzerna 400 and Jescar Power Lock+ a go after watching your other videos! Stunning results and great advice!
Wow what a job ! And what a great result ! I have a few questions. When you say that you up your buffer speed at each pass, what is a pass / Is a pass an up down, side to side, or do you mean you do a section with adding compound 3 or 4 times ? Is the stark Hyper hold as good as a Ceramic coating treatment ? When you say waxing in this video, you mean applying the Starke Hyper Hold ! Also when you wet sand the fibreglass, when do you know you sanded enough ? When do you know you sanded enough ? Thanks for your patience . George
Thanks for watching! side to side, up down, side to side is 3 passes. Ceramic will last longer that hyperhold. Hyperhold will last about 4 to 6 months. Ceramic about 12 to 24 months When I say waxing I me hyperhold you'll know you sanded enough when the gel coat is perfectly evenly pull.
Drake would like you to try Menzerna 300 vs Starke Level R? Also just purchased a Flex 3401 last week, after using my flex 14-2 150 rotary for 15 year exclusively. It will be nice to have a 1, 2 punch now.
I've just finished doing my '99 Trophy with Presta products and after seeing this video i think I'll use Stark products. Is there anything I should be aware of about wet sanding a boat this old? It was chalky before I compounded and polished it.
Fantastic video! I saw you using a clay bar in one of your other videos. Is there a certain brand of clay bar you recommend? Also can you make a video on metal cleaning on boat? Thanks
Meguires clay bar is good, they are all about the same honestly! Ha Here’s a video I did a while back on metal polishing, restoration, and protection! Hope this helps! 😎 m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gogYqyj1mS0.html
So question re wet sand:got an old boat with severe gel coat oxidation (5/5) that I'm planning on wet sanding. I've got Abranet 600 and 1000, as well as Abralon 500 and 1000. Using a DA (Maxshine M8s V2). Thinking of going Abranet 600 to 1000, then follow with Abralon 500 to 1000. Next step will be Starke Level R with a white wool pad with Makita, followed by Menzerna 400 using a Lake Country orange on a Rupe Big Foot, and then finish with Starke Hyperhold with my DA. Any advice, especially on Abranet and Abralon would be welcome. Also, settings for my DA, Makita and Rupe would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your advice...your content is the most credible and trusted in mho.
Hey bro! That process should your great! Although, you may be jumping grits too much with the sand paper. 500 and 1000 are to very different grits. I’d throw in a grit in between your 500 and 1000 step. Other than that, the heavier the compound, the lower speed you wanna run your buffer on. The lighter the compound, the faster you wanna run your machine.
Thank you for your videos and your store with easy access and quick shipping for all the products I needed to restore my boat’s gel coat! Do you think I can follow the same process on my outboard cowlings? I’m worried the heavy compound/rotary could be a bit much. 2005 Yamahas. Thanks again!
This is awesome. Definitely inspired me to go the extra mile. What would you use to restore an originally white but now faded yellowish bump rail ? Keep up the good work mate!
Whats up man you've motivated me to start my own business, and just started my first gig. Typically how long would it take to polish and wax a Bayliner 34. I keep under estimating the amount of time to finish. Thanks for the awesome videos man been watching your channels for quite some time now. God bless.
Great Work as always! I have an older boat and plan on following this video step by step on a restoration. How many pads and sheets of paper did you go thru? I also removed some decals and the gel coat is visibly raised in those areas. Will the wet sand smooth those out too?
Good day Drake! You da man, i may be an old dog but i am learning new tricks from you. Can you give me a link for the north lake polishing pad sets?. Thanks i appreciate your site.
Amazing depth in every video. Appreciate what you are doing for this community! Quick question regarding polymers....I've used Rejex, Smoove, turtle wax seal and shine with collinite 845 as a topper. Have yet to try out Jescar or Starke Hyper Hold. Being in NJ with a 8 month boating/fishing season, in your expert opinion what gives clients the best UV protection/water beading/shine and durability assuming they are using a PH balanced soap throughout the season?
So far I have seen great success with jescar and hyperhold. But, I top it with starke replenish. That topper really makes a huge difference, also if you or the owner tops it once a month the sealant will last 6 or 8 months all day.
Not intentionally, but as you sand more and more your disk will diminish just by the nature of it. But I get what your saying, that why you have to take so many little steps to work towards a smaller grit when wet sanding, staring from big and going to small.
Good morning Drake, I have a 2008 Larson cabrio 330. I think I have to wet sand it. I have never used any of the things you are mentioning. I am afraid that I will mess everything up. Your video is detailed and I will try my best to make my boat shine. Any other advice you may have for me? Thank you
Hey bro! Without seeing the boat it is really hard to tell. The best thing I can tell you is to do a test spot to see what is going to need done. Start with the least aggressive step in the test spot and, go up from there each time. Keep going up in agressiveness with the compound in your test spot until you have your desired results. Then you will know what you need to do for the rest of the boat
Nice info. I see hyper hold is sold out everywhere currently. any eta when this is coming back into stock on your site. If you can't get that sooner then later would Menzerna 400 be the best sub or Jescar Power Lock?
@@DrakesDetailing thanks . I’ll hold off then. It’s my first time attempting to compound and polish. Searay 320 navy blue hull. Plan was to use level-r with presta white wool on variable speed polisher , then go to elevate with lake country orange 5 inch pad with griots DA and then watching your video I may need to follow up with white lake country 5 inch pad (use same elevate ?) and then finish with microfiber 6 inch buff and shine with hyper hold . Should I change up any of that approach? Thanks for replying so quickly. Up here in NJ so it’s getting time to get ducks in a row .
Hey Drake, as always👍! When you say I want able to remove sanding marks so had to do an Extra step, what do you mean by that? Just the scratches that it leaves or you include into "sanding marks" pig tails as well? Sometimes I manage to remove the scratches during the compounding step but not the pigtails which are a bit deeper
Hey Drake amazing videos, why do you only mask off the bottom of the. Boat when you switch to buffing and not wetsanding? Does the 800 grit abranet not take bottom paint off the boat?
Good question! Yes the sanding well take off the bottom paint, but in this case I wasn’t trying to protect to bottom paint, I was protecting my pad. If the pad hit the paint it would turn my pad black and ruin it. This boat was going to a yachtworks company after I was done to get new bottom paint, and touch up paint on a few areas.
If you stay on top of it with sealant every 3 months AND keep up the sealant with protection like Starke’s replenish once a month, you shouldn’t have any oxidation build up. However, maybe once a year depending on your climate I would still recommend doing a washing strip down of the wax with Dawn dishwashing detergent, then do a light compound/ polish just to keep swirl marks out and to remove the micro-oxidation that may be there just to give it a real nice shine and rejuvenate it once again, and then sealant then keep the protectant on it every month and sealant every 3 months until you get to your once a year light compound and polish again. You should be looking good bro! 😎🔥🔥. Here’s the link to the Starke replenish. You wipe it in just like a cleaner after your monthly, or bi-weekly wash. drakesmarinedetailsupply.com/products/starke-replenish-silica-spray?_pos=1&_sid=c881b5bc0&_ss=r
Hey man! The process is varies from boat to boat. Generally, you start with a lower grit number, and move to a finer grit as you finish the sanding process. Then after your finest sanding step, you start with your heaviest compound (like Starke Level R ) then move to less grit each time down the line of compounds. Here’s my website, I have tons of sanding and compounds to choose from! Hope this helps! drakesmarinedetailsupply.com/
Awesome work as usual Drake!! I have a question about the presta double sided wool pad. I recently bought one, and my spindle on my Makita rotary buffer is shorter than yours for some reason and is very tight against the buffer. Also, when the pad is totally locked on, the spindle sticks through the pad to the point where it makes me kind of nervous. Just wondering what your thoughts were. Thanks!
Hey bro! So anytime you run a double sided pad, you need to have this adapter on your rotary. drakesmarinedetailsupply.com/collections/pads-accessories/products/double-sided-rotary-pad-adaptor?_pos=1&_sid=d295219bc&_ss=r
Yo Drake! Just picked up a 2003 action craft flats boat. The boat has the outlines from original stickers... will wet sanding get rid of these outlines? If not, how can I remove those decal outlines?
Hey drake what’s a good sealer after I used chop top. I used jet seal but seem that it fogged up the clarity so I had to redo it and left it unsealed and looks better but I want to seal it though thanks
Would using just abralon 1000 grit wet sand still give you some good results? I got a boat similar to this oxidation and they dont pay too much so hoping 1 step wet sand folllowed by heavy / medium cut would be enough? Also, are these sanding pads re usable or do you trash them after?
The sanding discs are no longer good after you use them. You can just use abralon I guess you would be alright, ithe result just edge it out a little better with Abranet and Abralon
I have a boat coming up that has white junk coming off by the customer just running his hand over it. What would you recommend that I try for this guy. I can’t afford all this stuff. I bought a VANNECT Buffer Polisher, 1200W 7-inch Polisher with 6 Variable Speed, 5 Foam Pads, Detachable Handle and Safety Lock Car Buffer Polisher Ideal for Car Sanding, Polishing, Waxing (Upgraded). I also have a random orbit polisher/buffer. I have no idea what to do
Is There is “chalk” coming off when you wipe your hand that’s a good indication that it’s going to need to be wet sanded that and you’ll have to invest in some good sandpaper and DA polisher
I don’t understand hoe van you go from 500 to 1000 wet and get al of the wetsandscrasches out of the gelcoat with compounding that sounds impossiblenfor me 1000 is best a heavy gritt to end
So for your sander you are using the griots garage G9? Do you find that a DA polisher is ever too agressive vs. a traditional DA sander with a smaller throw. The guy I learned from dry sanded and uses a dewalt variable speed DA sander with an interface pad, I am sure the purists would cringe at the idea of dry sanding but we had it down to a science- but sanding discs would get clogged very quickly. I would like to make the switch to wetsanding but I cant use my dewalt DA because it has an internal vacuum system that would suck up the water. I have been hesitant to use a DA polisher because I am afraid it would be much more aggressive with the longer throw. Doesn't seem like you're having any issues with the G9 being too agressive though. I have a torqx DA polisher with an 8mm throw that I want to use with the abralon discs. Do you think I'd have any issues with that being too aggressive?
Hey Shane! Na it will be fine aggressive wise, it all just has to do with your sanding pressure. I’m more of a fan of wet sanding just because your sanding disks will last you longer without getting clogged. But ya, you have nothing to worry about with the DA, I use it all the time! Just make sure you not pressing too hard and you should be looking good 😎
@@DrakesDetailing check out project farm channel. He washed a car like 10 times with dawn. No effect on the wax coating. Beaded up like it was just applied.
