Tips on Removing Oxidation

A few of my friends have called this spring to ask what I like for removing oxidation from the hulls of their boats. I just got off the phone with a friend who bought a 10-year old Chris Craft ski boat with red gelcoat, for example. This boat had been facing the same direction for years, and was oxidized badly on one side.

Let me start by saying that with a busy schedule and the boat in the water, my favorite solution is calling somebody who can do the work professionally. With what I save on Tylenol, it's money well-spent. A few suggestions for who to call will be listed shortly under the Services menu tab. If you are lucky enough to have a big garage, your best bet for the finish is to keep the boat inside and out of the sun. A neighbor of mine owns my old Sea Ray 190, for example, keeps it inside, and hasn't had to wax it since the day he bought it from me years ago.

When I have a boat in the driveway and a few hours here and there, my favorite is Meguiars products used with my trusty Porter Cable 7242 sander with the orbital polisher attachments. You can find one on Google™ from auto care stores with a quick search. I like to start with Meguiars #49 Oxidation Remover, followed by Meguiars #45 Polish. The polish will not protect the finish, so I end with a good coat of Meguiars #56 Wax. Be sure to read the directions and change pads between steps.

I've found that the Porter Cable, unlike a circular buffer, does not generate enough heat to burn through the gelcoat. I always recommend starting with the least drastic measures, then moving up if the oxidation remover alone won't cut it. The next step in aggressiveness would be a circular polisher with wool pads, used with 3M Finesse compound. I have had to use this on the transom of almost every used boat I have purchased to make the ghost of the old name disappear. The problem with old graphics is that the graphics protect the area from the UV, while the surrounding area gets blasted by the sun. The circular polisher will dig in pretty good, so be careful to keep the setting low, keep it moving, and not heat up any area to the point that it will burn through.

Unlike paint on a car, gelcoat is usually pretty thick. In the worst-case scenario, you can consider wet-sanding the hull, then moving through less aggressive steps to achieve your goal. That is getting beyond the scope of a normal wax job, and you'd do best to search the internet for more details on where to start. Depending on the thickness of the gelcoat, you'll probably only get a few sandings out of the boat before you need to go to the next step--paint. Now you're talking Dupont Imron or similar, and had better warm up the checkbook.

Pictured below are pictures of a Sea Ray 210CC that I bought on eBay (hence, the name "Lucky Bid"). This particular boat had a good interior, but the outside needed some help. The hatch was rotten through and the hand rails over the cuddy were rotted, so I removed the rails and installed a new Bomar hatch. The gelcoat was finished using the three Meguiars products described above. A few days of polishing brought the boat back to life.

-Captain Eric

 

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