dull gel coat

[lizken]

any suggestions as to how dull gelcoat, on overcab mouldings etc, can have shine returned

[ips]

You need a good quality marine grade cutting compound like "Farecla" or "starbrite" if you choose to use an eletric rotary buffer / mop then make sure you keep the surface lubricated with a trigger spray full of water otherwise you will get lots of circles showing. Should come up like new.

[Colin Leake]

The above advice is good but you will find it hard work the first time. If the bloom on the surface is not too bad then a good quality marine combined cleaner and polish may do the trick.

 

Once you have put in all the hard work go over it with a marine polish, we use Starbright which is one of the more expensive ones but also one of the best, to give it a protective layer of polish. We do ours once in the spring and once it the autum to maintain the shine. If you do this it will remain gleaming and also be much easier to clean. When we exchanged our last one in the dealer commented the finish looked better than the original.

 

Don't be tempted into using any product that has not been designed for use on fibreglass no matter what advice you have been given. The correct materials are not expensive and you can rely on them to do a good job. Other products may seem to do an equally good job but many contain silicon which will have a long term bad effect on your gel coat.

 

Don't be tempted to buy a cheap rotary polisher from the likes of Halfords. Someone lent me one and it was useless for such a big area which is also difficult to reach. If you want to use a rotary polisher buy or hire good one.

 

After the first treatment which is hard work you will find subsequent ones very easy.