Need a Power Tool to Polish/Wax the Gelcoat

Based on past posts in newsgroup, people seems to use a rotary polisher to polish/wax their boats. It is like the Makita sander/polisher. But we must use it very carefully. If we stay in one place for too long, it may remove too much gelcoat.

I am also thinking of using a random orbital polisher such as Porter-Cable 7424. It is supposed to be safer to use around gelcoat or painted surface (like on a car body). But past posts seemed to say that it is not effective for restoring dull gelcoat. All these get me confused.

My questions are:

- Is a rotary polisher good for tough job such as restoring and polishing very aged and dull gelcoat?

- Is a rotary polisher not suitable for polishing/waxing painted surface such as on a car body? I "guess" the reasoning is that paint is much thinner than gelcoat and has a higher risk of removing too much paint if the rotary polisher stays in one place for too long, right?

- Is a random orbital polisher good for small job such as waxing gelcoat that has already been polished, or polishing/waxing painted surface (like on a car body)?

- Is a random orbital polisher not suitable for polishing aged and dull gelocat? I "guess" the reason is that random orbital polisher runs at a lower speed and will take too long to get the job done, right?

Having said that, may I still use a random orbital polisher to polish/wax the dull gelcoat? This is just a matter of taking longer to get done, right? How much longer are we talking about here? This is not optimal, but is still OK, right?

Should I simply draw a line between boats and cars and say that we should use a rotary polisher for polishing/waxing boats, and should use a random orbital polisher for polishing/waxing cars?

Any idea? Thanks.

Jay Chan

I would only use a "random orbit polisher" as a light duty tool. You want to do some real polishing, buy a real polisher. Remember that light duty, regular polishing, requires different tools than heavy duty polishing of neglected surfaces. ____________________________

My advice: Go to your local yard, (or the local fire station) and observe. These guys do a lot of polishing. See what they use.

Don't listen to advice from people who think polishing their car means sitting in a plastic chair and drinking an expensive coffee drink while someone else does the work.

Don't fall for the people trying to sell an easy way. Buy the proper tools and materials.

Be sure to get several polishing pads, I find that the annual boat waxing pretty well goes through one, and you are going to need several passes.

I am also thinking along the line of Porter-Cable 7424 random orbital polisher. Actually, I am interested in their 97366 random orbital 6" sander that is basically the same as 7424 but has dust collection and that can accept a polishing pad (as what their tech support has suggested). Then I can use it as a sander and as a polisher (the dust collection is very important for sanding around fiberglass that I just had an unpleasure experience with in the last weekend).

What does "Dual-Action" mean as mentioned in http://pinnaclewax.com/variablepad.html?

Thanks.

Jay Chan

Jay Chan

Chuck Tribolet wrote:

If I were supposed to polish boats for a living, I would surely get the best tool for the task. But I am not doing this for a living, I will have to compromise.

Jay Chan

Also go to rec.boats.cruising and find the thread "Cleaning the Hull" posted on 4/19. Rich Hample posted a great step by step process for restoring the finish.