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My Outrage 22 came with an old name removed from both sides of the hull, but the surrounding area of the name is dull, while where the letters were is glossy.

I tried heavy duty compound, finesse it and then polish all with my Porter Cable and I can still see the dull areas. My thinking is that the previous owner removed it by wet sanding, but did not buff it out or used a solvent like acetone.

I am going down the aggressiveness list and will be wet sanding starting at 600 and working my way up to 1200-1500, then repeating the compound, finesse, polish process.

My questions are:

Does it matter if you sand in a uniform direction (i.e. fore/aft) or does it matter?
Are the second and third sandings in the same direction or does it matter?
If I wet sand around the Whaler logo without removing it, will the transition look "funny" in this area? I have CF numbers and stripe removed, but I really do not want to remove the Whaler Logo.

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I wet sanded my Montauk and it did not make any difference which direction I went. I just made sure to get all the previous size paper scratches out before going to the next step -- I also increased the size of my sanding area an inch or so with every change of finer grit paper. I think this helps flair out the sanding so you remove every deeper scratch you just laid down. As far as the logo, I buffed right over mine with 3M Extra Cut followed by Finesse It and Wax. I never noticed a difference in the shine around that area.

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Don't get discouraged if you can't get the old name's 'shadow' to completely disappear- it will fade over time. I tried just about everything on my sailboat after changing it's name but had little luck totally erasing the gloss that you mentioned. After one summer though it was almost invisible.

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I found that I got a much better result with the compound by using a very high rpm with the buffer. I had to be very careful not to get the surface too hot, but I spun the buffer around 1200-1500 RPM and it made a very noticeable difference in the shine compared to the spots I did at a lower speed. You may try that on the dull spots first. Once you sand, you gotta go through all them steps again.

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Guys, thanks for the responses. I will give the rubbing compound a try at a higher rpm prior to wet sanding.

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Always read the instructions, most products will provide instructions for both hand and machine use. Usually to include RPM settings.

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True, they do, but they don't always have the best rules for your particular application. If nobody experimented with anything we would be in a boring place, most likely without the convenience of these machines on which we are now talking...

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John,
If you use a product like rubbing compound and don't follow the instructions your just wasting money and getting lousy results. Buff Magic is a perfect example, you need to really heat it up, and completely run thru the product on the gelcoat to have it work effectively. Now that I know that (finally read the instructions) I use less, and I can apply that to the non-skid and get reasonable results as well.

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Wet sanding is the way to go, but be sure to use a sanding block to keep from getting low spots. You should be able to even out the high spots and make the old letter ghosts disappear.

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When I bought my Outrage 22 the gelcoat was flat looking after many years in Florida and Southern California sun. I wet sanded it starting with 800, then progressively finer. If I remember correctly, I went through 2000. I finished everything off with the Finesse-It II and then Driven Sealer. I am not sure that I needed to go all the way to 2000, but did it anyway.

I used a block in areas that were very straight and flat, but mostly just used my fingers. I counted strokes and marked the work areas off with a piece of tape stuck to the rubrail. That way I could keep track of what was covered and what was not and how much material I was removing at a given grit of paper. I tried to cover every area with the same quantity of sanding strokes, and hit every area twice.

Some of you may recall, the boat was named "No Risk" when I bought it. The lettering was very large. When I removed the lettering, there was a pronounced shadow. I worked the area over around the lettering a little extra. When I finished the entire process, you could barely see the lettering shadow. In a few weeks, it had totally disappeared.

The wet sanding routine is a bit tedious, but once done, if you tune up the gelcoat about once a year, you should not have to do it again.

I store my boat most of the year in a covered carport. The port side of my boat is exposed to the sun. I missed last year's gelcoat tune up, so I had to do a little extra Finnesse-It II buffing on the port side before I could wax it. It's all shined up now for the upcoming season.

Doug

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You have seen my project, no? That is a wet sand at 400, 600 and 1000, followed by 3M Imperial Compound, followed by 3M Finesse it II, then 3 coats of Carnauba. Yes, I did spin the buffer faster than they recommended, (or so I thought, as I have recently learned different, read on) and the results were better than what I achieved when I spun it slower.

It turns out, I was following the directions even though I thought I was using it faster than recommended. I must have been thinking of a different product.

This is from 3M's website about Imperial Compound..."This liquid compound and finishing material is designed to remove a P600 or P800 dual action sand scratch from gelcoat, with a wool pad. Designed to be used with an air or electric buffer (1500-2500 rpm) equipped with a 3M™ Compounding Buff Pads."