Marine Polish and Metal Flake

[unclejessie]

I wanted to polish out some light scratches around this corner and it dulled the metal flake. Anyone have any thoughts on how or why this happened? I used Driven Marine Polish. I am a little nervous about waxing the metal flake now. The boat is about 6 weeks old. Dealer is looking into what might have happened and will in all likelihood fix it, but what the heck happened and why?

[unclejessie]

Also, I want to know if waxing is ok on metal flake? I am hearing that these boat do NOT have gel coat clear coating... if that is true, waxing the metal flake might turn out to be a real bad idea. One guy has suggested go at it with a restore product because he thinks the polish got absorbed. I think he is correct. Any thoughts?

[nyryan2001]

Polish is fairly abrasive.... Not a problem... Wax it HARD in that area a few times and it will bring the mirror finish back.

In order of Abrasiveness:

Wax

Cleaner wax

Polish

Compound

Wet sand

[migs]

Uncle - so you ended up with the G huh? nice!!! I rode with you that one day on the red & black G21 at calero with Mike. Did you end up getting your G from Mike?

[unclejessie]

nyryan, I talked to the guy at Driven yesterday and he said polish would not dull it... but as you wrote, it seems to be more abrasive than wax, right? So just hot t wax a few times, rubbing hard?

Migs, yet, Mike at CV Marine in Cambell. You still got your 210?

[unclejessie]

Migs.... I just read "en route"... sweet! From Mike as well? Boat is GREAT!!

[migs]

Uncle - Congrats man!!!!! Yup still have my 210 but Working on the G & of course will go through Mike.

[nyryan2001]

Driven must not know gel coat. Anything other than pure wax can can haze or dull gel... Though it's not a problem... So yep pure wax hard and fast a few times... It'll bring it back to a mirror finish.

You didn't talk about your buffing pad.... Is it a waxing pad or a polish/compound pad? Wax on an abrasive pad can dull the surface also.

[unclejessie]

micro fiber cloth

[nyryan2001]

On an orbital buffer or by hand?

Microfiber pad on an orbital buffer is perfect.... Use pure wax.... Lean in hard while the wax is still liquid/cream.... When you start to see dust, stop, it's done.... and let it dry and wipe away with a clean cloth and repeat. 2-4x and you'll have a mirror shine.


If doing this by hand, press wicked hard and repeat 10-15x.