Gel-Coat Restoration

Fiberglass Restoration

The outer surface of a fiberglass boat is normally a special resin called gelcoat which protects the hull and vessel’s interlinings in addition to giving the boat its color and shine. Unfortunately, time and exposure eventually erode the relatively soft surface of gelcoat, leaving it dull and chalky. Fortunately, the gloss usually can be restored through one or more of the following processes.

Cleaning & Degreasing

Our first step in fiberglass restoration process is simply cleaning. The gelcoat must be completely free of dirt, oil, and grease in order to obtain the absolute best results and highest shine from the restoration process.

Hand Waxing

Keeping gelcoat coated with wax from day one is the best way to prolong its life. Regularly waxed gelcoat (quarterly) can retain its gloss for 15 years or more. The real purpose of a coat of wax is to protect, however some of our cleaner waxes have some minor restorative properties if the gelcoat is not too badly weathered. Most often though, an extended period of time has passed between wax applications, which allows the gelcoat to weather and become chalky.

Machine Polishing

If the gelcoat is beyond the restoring power of waxing, the next step is machine polishing. Polish is not a coating, but rather an extremily slight abrasive. Polishing removes the pitted surfaces rather than coating them. After polishing, we will then apply a coat of wax to protect the surface and improve the gloss.

Machine Compounding

If the gelcoat is still beyond the restroing power of polishing, you will need the stronger abrasives of rubbing compound.

Rubbing compound is simply a more abbrasive polish, it is applied with a machine buffer and removes a very thin top layer of gelcoat, not to fear the average gel coat is 10 times thicker than the clear coat on your car. After the surface has been machine compounded, we then machine polish it to a shine, finally we’ll coat it with wax and hand buff it out. This process will restore the shine to fiberglass in almost any condition, providing the gelcoat has adequte thickness and has not been compounded too many times in the past.

Wet Sanding

Wet Sanding is required for seriously oxidized and lightly scratched gel coat surfaces beyond the standard refinishing process. Wet Sanding is an additional step taken prior to the machine compounding/polishing process. Call or email our office for more information.

Feel free to contact Yachtdocs for assitance in deteriming which process best suits your application