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cut and buff question..(boat related , don't open)

2FORCEFULL

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any body do the first cut on a hull straight from the mold..

what grit paper did you start with,,
 

Rvrluvr

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I like to start with 80 and work my way to a 120...dry of course:)
 

BadBlown572

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any body do the first cut on a hull straight from the mold..

what grit paper did you start with,,

On a bare hull straight from the mold, we use 800 grit to start with then step it down to 1000. All using an orbital air sander with water. Finally, if you want it perfect, use 1500 on a block sander. After that, just buff and it will turn out awesome!
 

rivergames

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This is a good thread.

i have a questions. I took my boat to the fiberglass shop a while back to get some work done. The guy wanted to buff the boat out. He did all the areas, except the transom. I want to buff the transom before I add some paint to the boat.

My turnbuckles are in the way. What steps would I take to buff the transom out by hand?
 

Gelcoater

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This is a good thread.

i have a questions. I took my boat to the fiberglass shop a while back to get some work done. The guy wanted to buff the boat out. He did all the areas, except the transom. I want to buff the transom before I add some paint to the boat.

My turnbuckles are in the way. What steps would I take to buff the transom out by hand?
try a 90deg. drill with a 4-6 inch buffing pad.

when you say add paint i assume you mean painted name?
 

rivergames

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try a 90deg. drill with a 4-6 inch buffing pad.

when you say add paint i assume you mean painted name?

not a name, but i am going to add pin stripping around the boat. I wanted to buff the transom before I have it striped
 

RiverDave

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This is a good thread.

i have a questions. I took my boat to the fiberglass shop a while back to get some work done. The guy wanted to buff the boat out. He did all the areas, except the transom. I want to buff the transom before I add some paint to the boat.

My turnbuckles are in the way. What steps would I take to buff the transom out by hand?

If it's just the transom Kevin down at KMG could do it real cheap.. Hell to do your whole boat would only be about 500 bucks? 2 stage wetsand and buff, to make it look new again. :)

Click on his announcement on the front page..

RD
 

2FORCEFULL

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On a bare hull straight from the mold, we use 800 grit to start with then step it down to 1000. All using an orbital air sander with water. Finally, if you want it perfect, use 1500 on a block sander. After that, just buff and it will turn out awesome!

where I f'd up was starting with 600.... the mold was full of tape cuts
so it hit it with the 600 to try to save time, went to 800 then try'd to buff it but couldn't get the 600 scratches out,,'

went back this morn ing and hand blocked it over with 1500...


she's look'n good now...
 

rivergames

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If it's just the transom Kevin down at KMG could do it real cheap.. Hell to do your whole boat would only be about 500 bucks? 2 stage wetsand and buff, to make it look new again. :)

Click on his announcement on the front page..

RD

I would use Kevin but that is a a bit of a journey for me since he is down in SD
 

BadBlown572

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where I f'd up was starting with 600.... the mold was full of tape cuts
so it hit it with the 600 to try to save time, went to 800 then try'd to buff it but couldn't get the 600 scratches out,,'

went back this morn ing and hand blocked it over with 1500...


she's look'n good now...

Sounds good. 600 is a little agressive. :( Usually we started with 800 and it was a very light pass. Just get all of the major blemishes out of it. The rest was just detailing. :) Glad it all worked out for you. :thumbsup
 

RiverDave

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Why would you have to wetsand and buff a brand new boat?

RD
 

Outdrive1

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Sanding saves time with buffing. 1000 for almost everything before buffing. If it's something you really don't want to cut hard 2000 buffs out really nice.

Steve without seeing what you're doing, I'd do 2000 and see if it's enough, if not step it up from there.
 

Gelcoater

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Why would you have to wetsand and buff a brand new boat?

RD
If the mold was properly detailed,you shouldn't have to Dave.The problem is in time,with the companies that do repetitive designs[you know who they are],the cut marks in the same place boat after boat add up. Its fair to say the better the surface of the mold,the better the finish of the boat coming out of it.

I went round and round with a certain Q/C guy at a certain company who insisted it was more cost effective to sand every boat[starting with dry 400 grit gold paper] and work up through grits,taking 2-3 days to sand/buff each boat than to put off production 1 week to properly detail the mold,knowing there were 3-4 in line.
 

2FORCEFULL

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Sounds good. 600 is a little agressive. :( Usually we started with 800 and it was a very light pass. Just get all of the major blemishes out of it. The rest was just detailing. :) Glad it all worked out for you. :thumbsup

got er done...:thumbsup... to prevent possible un intened spam,
no photo:cool:
 

2FORCEFULL

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I would use Kevin but that is a a bit of a journey for me since he is down in SD

to bad you don't live in vegas... take about 15 min. to have it shin'n like a dime in a goats ass...
 

2FORCEFULL

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Why would you have to wetsand and buff a brand new boat?

RD

all " quality" boats get that done....DCB has some of the best
cut and buff guys,,,their gel looks electric at the boat shows
 

Gelcoater

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all " quality" boats get that done....DCB has some of the best
cut and buff guys,,,their gel looks electric at the boat shows
In DCB's case its mandatory,as all the boats they do lately are capped front and rear. It has to be done to blend the capped gel into the in the mold gel.
 

DaveC

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Im curious. How do they prepare a mold??

If the mold was properly detailed,you shouldn't have to Dave.The problem is in time,with the companies that do repetitive designs[you know who they are],the cut marks in the same place boat after boat add up. Its fair to say the better the surface of the mold,the better the finish of the boat coming out of it.

I went round and round with a certain Q/C guy at a certain company who insisted it was more cost effective to sand every boat[starting with dry 400 grit gold paper] and work up through grits,taking 2-3 days to sand/buff each boat than to put off production 1 week to properly detail the mold,knowing there were 3-4 in line.
 

RiverDave

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all " quality" boats get that done....DCB has some of the best
cut and buff guys,,,their gel looks electric at the boat shows

I understand boats are wetsanded and buffed out of the mold.. I'm asking why yours wasn't before you took delivery? This is customarily done at the glass shop, in most cases before the rigging even starts?
 

2FORCEFULL

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I understand boats are wetsanded and buffed out of the mold.. I'm asking why yours wasn't before you took delivery? This is customarily done at the glass shop, in most cases before the rigging even starts?

I bought bare hulls right out of the mold.. then had them rigged..
 

BadBlown572

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Im curious. How do they prepare a mold??

Depends on the condition of the mold. Usually if the mold is in good shape, you just apply 2-3 coats of a special mold release wax. That is usually sufficient. Also, the wax helps create a barrier between the mold and the tape. It helps minimize the cuts that the razor blades put into the mold while taping the graphics.

If the mold has been in storage for a while and/or sat outside, you will usually need to hit it with a very light sand paper. Usually 1,000-1500 to get it cleaned up. You can simply buff the mold, but it will take you 10x the amount of time as a light sanding. Either way, it will get the oxidation off of it. After that, you will buff the mold with a light compound and wax.
 

2FORCEFULL

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:cool:
 

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warpt71

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On a bare hull straight from the mold, we use 800 grit to start with then step it down to 1000. All using an orbital air sander with water. Finally, if you want it perfect, use 1500 on a block sander. After that, just buff and it will turn out awesome!

What, if anything, would you do different if it were a 30 year old boat?
 

Gelcoater

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Depends on the condition of the mold. Usually if the mold is in good shape, you just apply 2-3 coats of a special mold release wax. That is usually sufficient. Also, the wax helps create a barrier between the mold and the tape. It helps minimize the cuts that the razor blades put into the mold while taping the graphics.

If the mold has been in storage for a while and/or sat outside, you will usually need to hit it with a very light sand paper. Usually 1,000-1500 to get it cleaned up. You can simply buff the mold, but it will take you 10x the amount of time as a light sanding. Either way, it will get the oxidation off of it. After that, you will buff the mold with a light compound and wax.
this is pretty accurate.most companies will do 7-10 coats of mold release,3 a day,when your talking a new mold. Molds that are "seasoned" usualy just get one coat. I dont think the wax minimizes cuts however,thats done with a soft touch.

Molds that have sat out a while can [most of the time]be buffed and waxed. a product called formula 5 [a buffing compound] works wonders with out sanding.Some times they do need a light sand,but if you do this you...

A; have to go through the 7-10 coats of waxing again to be safe,and

B; just removed more of the very valueable tooling gel off the mold.

Just my .02 here, there are as many techniques of mold prep as there are companies building out of a mold. Imnot saying one is better than another,unless a boat stickes in the mold. In that case,your technique needs improvement:D
 

BadBlown572

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What, if anything, would you do different if it were a 30 year old boat?

The process is exactly the same, but I would probably start off with 1500 or even 2,000 grit.. When a new boat comes straight from the mold, you know that there is sufficient gel coat on the boat to wet sand and buff. On an older boat, you have no idea how many times the boat has been wet sanded and buffed. Not just that, but the quality of gel coats has greatly improved over the years. Every time you wet sand, you take out some of the material. So, when sanding, be very careful not to go through and down to the next color. You will start to see the next color "bleed" through. Stop immediately. That is as far as you can go!

If it is too bad, re-gel is your only option. :( Only go as far as needed to get surface scratches out of the gel as well as the oxidation off. After that, just buff with a light cutter.

The best buffing compound that I have found is a substance called Rollite. It is a jeweler's rouge.
 
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Nice job Stevo, I'll drop mine off in the morning....:D
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rivergames

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So if I was going to buff the transom of my boat by hand, these are the steps I would take:

1) wet sand starting with 1500 grit
2) wet sand with 2000 grit
3) clean surface then apply a couple coats of wax?


The areas I need to wet sand by hand, Do I just sand in a circular motion?
 

2FORCEFULL

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So if I was going to buff the transom of my boat by hand, these are the steps I would take:

1) wet sand starting with 1500 grit
2) wet sand with 2000 grit
3) clean surface then apply a couple coats of wax?


The areas I need to wet sand by hand, Do I just sand in a circular motion?

no, no, no,no-no

you might wann put up a picture...but never, never sand in a circle
you never get the sand scratches out..

I would recomend hand rubbing with gel gloss....
 

rivergames

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no, no, no,no-no

you might wann put up a picture...but never, never sand in a circle
you never get the sand scratches out..

I would recomend hand rubbing with gel gloss....

here is a shot of the transom. As soon as the motor is healthy again

The top black is buffed, but the bottom black behind the turn buckles needs love
 

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Outdrive1

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no, no, no,no-no

you might wann put up a picture...but never, never sand in a circle
you never get the sand scratches out..

I would recomend hand rubbing with gel gloss....

I agree, sand in the same direction as the body lines, never in a circle. If your gonna try to rub it by hand then 2000 is as agressive as i would go. I would remove the hardware, sand and buff. It will look better.
 
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