pay for boat detailing or surface repairs?

F

ferret30

New member
Our newly acquired 2006 22 Cruiser sat in front of a houseboat in fresh water for the last 2 years. I've got lots of cleaning supplies (3M Restore & Was, 3M Color Restorer, rubbing compound, etc.) but not a lot of time to work on/around the boat since it's miles away from our house and we're busy most weekends. The 2 years in the water wasn't hard on the boat, and no water was detected in the hull or transom, but it did mean the boat was uncovered, so the finish is chalky, and the 3 inches above the waterline/bottom paint have a stubborn green coloring.

I have to do some work soon to fill/repair holes where hardware was removed and that's going to take a lot of the time I do have. So I'm considering paying someone to do the detail this one time and then take over myself from then on. Or maybe I should hire out the gelcoat repairs first and then put in time spiffing up the boat myself.

Have any of you paid for a boat clean/detail? How much should I expect to pay, and is it worth it? Since we're planning on keeping the boat covered on a trailer, I'm thinking that after an initial deep cleaning/waxing, my finish maintenance duties will be a lot less intensive.

Thanks!
 
While hauled out over the winter for some engine work, I hired a guy through the shop to wax the hull from bottom paint to rub rail becuase we keep it in the water and that is harder to do in the slip. He charged over 250 bucks on our 25 and didn't do a very good job at all so try to get a recommendation from an owner who has used them. Next time I will do the same and at least I didn't end up paying that full price in the end. Just for time reference, My wife and I cleaned and waxed the topsides this spring in about 4 hours total with limited help from an electric buffer.

Greg
 
Great topic !

The only time I ever tried to restore a finish I burned the hood of my Toyota 4X4. :cry

Since then I've put off giving Adeline a good buffing. I SURE don't wanna burn her.

I did a quick search of YouTube for "hull compounding" and found a helpful video that may inspire me to finally perform this overdue chore.

3M Polishing with Imperial Compound and Finishing Material

Hopefully, others here will watch it and chime in with helpful advice about the procedure they demonstrate. :wink
 
I had great results from Emily at Deck Scrubbers (360) 286-6078

www.deckscrubbers.com She worked magic on my Sea Ranger 19' I also had two years of in the water gunk that she got off the boat. I would highly recommend her.
 
Adeline":61thituz said:
Great topic !

The only time I ever tried to restore a finish I burned the hood of my Toyota 4X4. :cry

Since then I've put off giving Adeline a good buffing. I SURE don't wanna burn her.

I did a quick search of YouTube for "hull compounding" and found a helpful video that may inspire me to finally perform this overdue chore.

3M Polishing with Imperial Compound and Finishing Material

Hopefully, others here will watch it and chime in with helpful advice about the procedure they demonstrate. :wink
Click to expand...

Slowing down the buffer will greatly reduce the chances of burning the paint or gel coat.

Most buffers run 1200-1600 rpm, a bit too fast.

The fast speed can not only burn, but it also heats up the compound quickly, turning it to dust (which it thrown into the air) before you get a chance to let it work.

Best solution I know of is to get a Milwaukee Hole Hawg (right angle plumber's/electrician's) 1/2' drill, and add a buffing pad set up to it.

Then you have a choice between 400 and 600 rpm.

Joe. :teeth :thup

milwaukee-hole-hawg.jpg
 
m2cw is thoroughly clean the boat with hot soapy water and rinse well. Try some rubbing compound and a damp clean cotton or microfiber cloth on a 1' square area then remove, add wax and polish.
This will set a baseline on of about of work required. An electric polisher with a wool, cotton, foam, or microfiber pad will make the task better. I have 2 entry level buffer/polishers. One from HF and other made by WEN. If these cheapies wear out, I will buy a pro model. Pads and pad material make a difference and keep several on hand, change often and rinse the dirty one when you replace with a clean one. Start in small section and quit after a hour. You can use cheap
Start again later you will improve each time.
It might take a week working a little bit at a time

Another tip from a buddy

If the surface is heavily oxidized, use something like the 3M brown liquid in a mustard squirt bottle (like you'd find in a diner).
Mix the compound 50/50 with water to keep the surface moist as you use the buffer to cut the bad gel coat from the good.
If the pad dries out prematurely, keep a squirt bottle with water handy to keep it moist.

I use Angie's List to find service providers.
see
http://www.angieslist.com/companylist/seattle/
for Seattle
 
I found a few threads where people mentioned the Porter Cable 7424 which is random orbital, but the RPM is only adjustable from 2.5K to 6k. This seemed way to fast, but then I remembered that my Bosch random orbital sander isn't actually spinning the pad at the motor speed, that's just the speed of the eccentric orbit. Is this right, or is it too fast?
 
The rpm range on the HF is variable from 200 to 3300.
I keep it slow for compounding. Work on a flat area first to gain experience on how it handles
 
I had the displeasure or having to remove a floor wax product from my boat in the spring. it took two weeks of work to get the whole boat done. I used a cheap harbor frieght adjustable speed polisher and it did a great job. After I got the floor wax off the rest was easy. I used a 3m heavy compond on the whole boat then washed it again, twice. once this was done the waxing was easy. I plan to another two coats to the boat after I put in back on the trailer in october.
 
Sea Wolf":32uxlywc said:
Adeline":32uxlywc said:
Great topic !

The only time I ever tried to restore a finish I burned the hood of my Toyota 4X4. :cry

Since then I've put off giving Adeline a good buffing. I SURE don't wanna burn her.

I did a quick search of YouTube for "hull compounding" and found a helpful video that may inspire me to finally perform this overdue chore.

3M Polishing with Imperial Compound and Finishing Material

Hopefully, others here will watch it and chime in with helpful advice about the procedure they demonstrate. :wink
Click to expand...

Slowing down the buffer will greatly reduce the chances of burning the paint or gel coat.

Most buffers run 1200-1600 rpm, a bit too fast.

The fast speed can not only burn, but it also heats up the compound quickly, turning it to dust (which it thrown into the air) before you get a chance to let it work.

Best solution I know of is to get a Milwaukee Hole Hawg (right angle plumber's/electrician's) 1/2' drill, and add a buffing pad set up to it.

Then you have a choice between 400 and 600 rpm.

Joe. :teeth :thup

milwaukee-hole-hawg.jpg
Click to expand...


I would like a Makita 9227c
 
Most buffers run 1200-1600 rpm, a bit too fast.
Click to expand...

I watched the video again and @ about 3:35 the tech was recommending 800-1200 rpm. It LOOKED like he was using a variable-speed Makita.

I've got an old variable-speed Craftsman with a dial to select speeds from 1-10 but I have no idea what that translates to in rpms. :crook

It was my dad's and it's the same one that burned my Toy. :cry
 
I finally broke down and paid for a detail. $275 it now has 2 coats of wax and really shine. The trailer and boat were pressure washed before they ever started. Now that I have a good basecoat will do it myself, unless I get lazy again.
 
The detail was done in Calif. as I brought the boat down for the summer, next week it heads back to Washington, but at least the bugs should wash off a bit easier.
 
I had the Tom Cat 255 "detailed" 3 times in the last 6 months. The first time was a "professional" who brought 4 guys, and spend about 5 hours. They charged about $250, and I tipped each $20. In general it looked OK for a few days, but they missed a lot of places.

Next I took the boat to the ship yard, where there are some real professional boat people. There the boat was gone over with 3 M products and Colinate Fleet wax. That was $500, and took several days.

Finally we found a guy who charges $10 an hour, and he spent about 5 hours going over the boat just before Charlie picked it up--put on another coat of 3 M wax for a total of $50.

The cost can vary all over the place, as can the quality!
 
thataway":2crd44du said:
Finally we found a guy who charges $10 an hour, and he spent about 5 hours going over the boat just before Charlie picked it up--put on another coat of 3 M wax for a total of $50.

The cost can vary all over the place, as can the quality!
Click to expand...

And Bob, I gotta say that after 950+ miles on the Interstates, a Hurricane and a week in the Sun/Rain, it still looks great. How far will that guy travel? He could buy an RV and travel all over at that price!! :mrgreen:
 
I decided to hand off the gelcoat repairs to someone else. I brought our boat down to Tern Boat Salvage in Kent this morning (housed in the original C-Dory factory) and showed it to Buck. It's not going to be cheap but it'll be nice to have all the little holes filled in for good. There are 31 holes in the gunnels/cockpit area from aftermarket railings and a downrigger base. Four more holes in the middle of the roof from a decommissioned Garmin GPS antenna. And a dime sized chunk of gelcoat missing under the damaged anchor roller. It'll be worth it to me to have all these unsealed holes fixed up for good.

There is a small crack I didn't notice until to day in the green stripe under the anchor roller where the top and bottom shells meet. Apparently the two halves were glassed together from the inside so these little cracks are common. Buck's recommendation was to live with it for now since it would be a lot of work to fix and the problem is only cosmetic.

It was fun to talk to Buck, and I am amazed he worked at C-Dory back then since he seems like he's probably close to my age. I spotted some hull molds sitting out behind the building and they looked a lot like my hull! I'll post back sometime next week when the boat comes back. I'm really looking forward to getting it back and starting on the boat detail endeavor!
 
Before re-gelcoating the 41 year old Whaler classic I had to first grind/sand off every square inch of the old and badly cracked original gelcoat and one layer of paint. With this daunting task in front of me I bought a variable speed grinder/buffer from Harbor Freight that is very light and very cheap ($40).

I'm a tool guy and believe in buying quality. However, even though the quality of Harbor Freight tools is less than sub-standard, this one, at 1/3 the weight and 1/6 the price of a decent quality tool, fits the bill for occasional use.

Another handy tool for more intricate work is a buffer wheel for a 6" random orbit sander. There is also a higher quality tool designed specifically for such work but the name eludes me.
Cruiserlessvinny
 
I have a Bosch random orbital sander but I don't know if it's the right tool for the job. I don't want to wear out the tool or do damage to the boat. Are the HF buffer/polishers random orbital or basically just a variable speed motor? I don't know if random orbital is as important for boats as it is for cars (swirl marks), but it's nice that the HF tools can go down to very low speeds like some of the nicer stuff.
 
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