Need some help please on buffing--I think I may have screwed up

[sailor55330]

So, the boat had to sit out this winter. I would normally use Meguiars Ultimate Compound to buff it with a D/A buffer and a yellow 3M wool pad.

After reading such great things, I decided to try 3M perfect it. I used the light cut for light oxidation/combination wax. #2 I think?

I washed the boat as I alway have, dried it, and proceeded to buff it out. I used light pressure and made sure the pad was loaded before I started. I spread the compound around before turning on the buffer---essentially everything you are supposed to do. I got a little black on the pad which tells me there was some oxidation, but not much--it was a very light gray. As I stepped back and to the side (45 degree viewing angle) the hull was a mirror. I rewashed the boat to remove all residue and they I used what little bit of Hot Sauce I had left to get rid of the bottle.

Now it looks like crap. At 15ft the hull is hazy (more than it was before I started) and I have horizontal streaks that don't wash off from front to back It's not rotory swirls as I've seen those before. It just looks dull.

All I can figure is something in the Hot Sauce reacted with the 3M perfect it. I was never a big fan of the stuff as I always found it streaked. Now I'm convinced it's a crap product and it will never go on my boat again. I rewashed the hull hoping it was residue, but it's not. I tried buffing out a small section the next day and the streaks don't come off.

My once mirror like black hull is now streaky and dull and doesn't want to shine back up.

Help?

[Titaniumboy]

What is the year and model? Can you post pics of what it looks like?

I’m sure wetsanding will get it back to looking like new. (Sorry, bad joke on my part)

[tomace13]

1. It sounds like you didn’t really wax it after compounding? Hot sauce isn’t enough to seal things up and protect it.

2. No permanent damage. Infact, you probably didn’t go deep enough. DA polisher isn’t going to get deep enough to effectively polish, can’t apply enough pressure without it stalling out. Wet sand or use an orbital polisher.

[Titaniumboy]

Please don’t wetsand....

Your boat almost certainly won’t require 3M Super Duty to fix, but maybe only 3M Heavy Cut and Perfect-It EX AC. Maybe only the Perfect-It. Definitely will need a rotary polisher.

The problem with the 3M Light Cut is that it is a compound and a wax. The wax will fool you into thinking you are shiny when it is just the wax providing the shiny. Heavy Cut has no wax so you don’t get fooled.

[Big Block Power]

Sorry Sailor. Yes I'm sure it's just the hot sauce smearing. It's a bitch to get rid of. Mine was like that last year. I used some ceramic sealer. I'm not telling you to do it. But it helped with mine. It looks great in the garage and I'll have to see what it looks like outside of every gets above 50.lol
Yes this is the one really bad thing about hot sauce.

[sailor55330]

I know there's no way I cut to much, besides, a DA polisher would not leave vertical marks. On second examinations, I can put a "trail" in the vertical streaks with my finger so I think I'll try a little Dawn to get rid of the Hot Sauce. Hopefully I'm ok.

Hot Sauce sucks in my book.

[Lockey14s]

Wash with dawn and strip everything off back down to the bare gel coat. if you still have the streaks then you need to correct it with buffing. You need a rotary buffer and not a DA with a yellow pad. you can use a foam pad on a DA for polishing, but if you are using while wool or yellow pads they need to be used on a rotary. As tomace said the DA will stall out when you put pressure on it and will essentially do nothing, just vibrate.

Hot sauce is not meant to be a final wax/sealant. its for removing water spots and occasional wipe downs to add to the sealant you already have.

[sailor55330]

Ok, so I figured I'd close the loop here...and show how you can get micro-focused and not see the big picture.

I did wash the boat down with a small amount of dawn and yes, it got rid of the streaks from the Hot Sauce....that stuff will never touch my boat again as I've had lousy luck with it streaking.

SO, I looked at the hull side from straight on and while no streaks, it just seemed to have a dull appearance and I couldn't figure it out at all. If I stepped to the side and looked at it from a 45 degree angle, it appeared deep & wet, just like a black hull should--at this point I was stumped, so I went ahead and used the DA with some Meguiar's ultimate compound liquid (I really didnt' care much for the 3M finesse) which I have had good, albeit slow results with. I followed that with a good wax and still had the same results.

I ended up taking the boat out and while it's at the ramp, I noticed the hull was all of a sudden shiny and deep again...WTH? I get home, and the boat is dull again......What I figured out was the hull was actually reflecting the newer slightly greyer section of our driveway and it was making the hull look dull from straight on. Once I got it away from that, she was shining again....I moved the boat to a different part of the drive way and could see individual blades of grass in the reflection...

I think I'm good now....but I have to just laugh at myself.

[jhnmdahl]

Ha! Thanks for the follow-up, Sailor. Glad it's not a problem that requires more manual labor to fix.

John

[AsLan7]

I know there's no way I cut to much, besides, a DA polisher would not leave vertical marks. On second examinations, I can put a "trail" in the vertical streaks with my finger so I think I'll try a little Dawn to get rid of the Hot Sauce. Hopefully I'm ok.

Hot Sauce sucks in my book.

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That's funny S55...we have had the exact opposite experience from yours and did not find much success in the products you are using. We've moved from a DA polisher to a rotary for the higher cuttings speeds...no longer use Meguiars as we have had better results & shine with 3M products as per MNLB's recommendation...and use hot sauce on a dark hull after pulling her out of the lake for water spot removal and shine. (the only thing we don't like is the vinegar smell). Streaking is not an issue (it was with Adam's H2O G&G). I'm glad to see you found your happy place though... as they say, YMMV.

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