How to repair scratches and scuff marks on hull

[Peters11]

I recently purchased my first boat a 2013 Yamaha sx 190. I absolutely love the boat and is exactly what I was looking for and feel like I got a great price. Has 96hrs, interior is in great shape and only paid 13,500! The one downfall is the original owner was not carful to say the least arounds docks. It has a black hull with a lot of scratches and scuffs. I took the boat to a dealer and they quoted me $1600 to fix all the marks and make it look brand new. I understand this process isn't cheap but is there anyway I can do this process myself? I don't need it to look perfect just want some of the eyesore of the marks on the black hull gone. Any tips or suggestions would be great! Thanks
I will try and post pictures this evening

 

[Joe Hellaby]

Welcome the the site!


Depending how deep your scratches are, you could try and buff them out yourself. I recently got a buffer and got my boat all cleaned up after I got a lot of dock rash and scratches after keeping mine docked in somewhat rough waters for a weekend.
I had good luck with this compound https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00029CYRG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
with a decent buffing machine, using a wool pad. Then I followed up with a wax/polish to keep shiny. I takes several times going over the effected area. And by the time I added up the cost of the buffer, pads, product, I spent nearly $200, but I now have all the tools and equipment to do again. But I didn't get it perfect, I can find the scratches still, but I have to get really close to find them, you can't see any scratches from more than a couple feet away

Another option is to take to a detail show and have them do the buffing/cleaning. I've seen detail shops do amazing work on boats and cars over the years, it's amazing what they can buff out

 

[ncnmra]

2000 grit wet-sand paper, followed by buffing compound, followed by polish, followed by boat wax. Its a lot of work, but I managed to get a few small dock rash incidents out that way. Its easier to spot the "repair" on dark colors.

I fixed some pretty bad gouges due to improperly installed mooring whips by some 600-1000-2000 grit paper alone on he white part of my hull and you couldn't tell. However, note that this way the surface does face some distortion if you do it on a small area.

The "proper" way to fix deeper gouges is using something like Spectrum Color. There are a few threads about that on the forums.
http://www.spectrumcolor.com/Index.aspx?key=cat

 

[Peters11]

Thank you for the quick responses. I was planning on buying some nice cleaning and waxing supplies, buffer and what not so I will give that a shot. I just amazon primed the Meguiar's compound so I'll have that tomorrow and gonna give it a shot this weekend, I will try and post some pictures. Thanks again

 

[djetok]

https://www.amazon.com/3M-POLISHING-39062-39061-5723/dp/B0082LK87Y

 

[KXCam22]

Magic eraser works very well on most hull marks on the white areas . Cam