First Time Wet Sand...Poor Results

[Joshua Miller]

Trying to do some end-of-season cleanup. Thought I would wet sand the hull. Started with 1000 grit, moved to 1500, followed with a magic eraser, then 3M rubbing compound, glaze, and wax but I can still see the fine scratches and swirl marks. What am I missing? Should I have sanded to 2000 grit or finer before moving to rubbing compound?

 

[Neutron]

What kind of buff pad. If you are using wool. You will need to finish with a fine foam pad with something like 3m Finesse

 

[Joshua Miller]

What kind of buff pad. If you are using wool. You will need to finish with a fine foam pad with something like 3m Finesse

Yea I think that was the problem. I was hand buffing and that wasn’t enough. I went back to the rubbing compound with a cutting pad on an orbital sander and it’s looking better.

 

[Elliott]

Unless you have gelcoat that has chalked or deep scratches, you do not need to wet sand. Modern buffing compounds with cutting pads (mild to fast) applied with either long throw (15-21) or forced pad rotation random orbital buffers can handle anything else and probably the chalk and deep scratches too. Look at the products and videos at Shurhold, Griot's Garage and Autogeek.

Pros use rotary buffers because they have the experience and want the speed, but the only advantage is speed with a much higher risk of damage.

 

[haknslash]

You're not going to buff that out by hand unless you have nothing to do for hours upon hours and a shoulder made of steel. Otherwise you'll need a DA polisher at a minimum if you don't have a high speed buffer and use the correct pads.

 

[Jgorm]

You need a rotary buffer, not an orbital and definitely not by hand! It would take weeks by hand!

 

[Joshua Miller]

Yea.. rotary buffer made a huge difference. This is just with glaze no wax. Thanks all!