Rachel, What kind of motion did the Milwaukee have? Random Orbit? Was burning much of a risk that you could tell?
Thanks, Tod <======owner of one of those useless auto buffers. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rachel Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 2:23 PM To: Craig F. Honshell; For and about Montgomery Sailboats Subject: Re: M_Boats: Penetrol On Jun 6, 2005, at 2:04 PM, Craig F. Honshell wrote: > My gelcoat is pretty tired and I doubt I'll get a great result, but > I'll do what I can to get the best possible result. --Craig Hi Craig, Before I buffed out my 17, it was extremely chalky - not a hint of shine to be found. I first used a "regular" car-type buffer with the compound and it wouldn't touch it. I thought it was a lost cause. Then a friend loaned me his big, metal, Milwaukee buffer - has about an 8" pad. That did the trick and my boat ended up as shiny as new. A few years later I repeated the experience on my friend's Westsail. No luck until we rented one of those buffers, then shine. One other note: On my Monty I tried a few different compounds, and finally settled on the Meguiar's Heavy Duty Oxidation remover, followed by their two other products (recommended on the first one as the follow up steps). It's been so long now that I don't remember specifics, but one of the two follow-up products has a brownish tinge to it, and I had trouble with it staining my off-white gelcoat. Years later, when we were doing the Westsail, we were in a large yard with a professional staff (working on *other* people's boats, not ours, alas), and we had the same problem with another compound that was tan colored. One of the pros recommended a 3M product (white) and it worked very well. I can look up what it was if you have a problem finding it, but it comes in a tall, cylindrical plastic bottle that's about 1 quart in size. Has a purple label (for sure). Might be Imperial Microfinishing compound. On some stubborn spots on the Westsail we used very fine wet/dry sandpaper (which I'd also had good luck with on the Monty) - just using it by hand, not with a sander. I think we started with 1000 grit (600 grit on really bad spots), then gave a few swipes with 1500, then 2000. At the time we though the sandpaper was maybe a bit harsh, but in the end we noticed that the sandpapered spots looked even better than the rest. Then, last summer I worked at a marina that had a fiberglass expert on staff. Amazing the things that guy could do with fiberglass. At any rate, one day a customer came in asking about what product to use to buff out his boat and the guy recommended just the wet/dry sandpaper - no compounding at all. I'm still amazed at how often I pass boat-owners (and paid laborers even!) "buffing" boats with those little car buffers and ending up with almost no shine. If only they knew how much better the big Milwaukee works! That being said, it does have some power to contend with; ran away with me a time or two... (when I went to repair the cord on the rental I could see that I wasn't the first, either :-). I haven't used Penetrol. FWIW --- Rachel Fatty Knees 7' dinghy Former owner, M-17 #334 Former owner, M-15 #517 _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
