I want to hear the best polish procedures those who are willing to share. Im using Meguairs but Im not too happy with results.
Your gloss is only as good as your foundation. For a good foundation put down a nice tight lamination with ground free-laps or cut-lap. A nice hot coat with no drips, separation, tackienss etc. Sanded well, thru the grits , no swirl marks. Reichold gloss resin layed down with a good brush, no separation. Wet'n'dry thru the grits, # 2 Surfboard polish. No compound necessary if your foundation is good.
What are you not happy with? The material, or the finished results? Like kingding said, it’s all about the foundation. Polishing is the final stage of the process, and is just about shining up, not about getting rid of swirls, or scratches from poor prep.
What kind of pad did you use, was you backer pad flat, was it soft, rigid. What grit did you sand to before you went to the liquids?
wool bonnets are made for compounding and cutting, foam pads are made for polishing, there are different foam pad and polishes that match them. Depending on how shiny you want the surface there is a lot of steps in the process…all the way down to 3M ultra polish the blue top stuff, use it with a blue foam pad. This is the final step that gets rid of all micro swirls. It’s a automotive material, but it gets that better than factory shine.
Hey if it’s good enough for the automotive industry shiny, then it will more than work with fancy pool toys.
What are you not happy with? The material, or the finished results? Like kingding said, it’s all about the foundation. Polishing is the final stage of the process, and is just about shining up, not about getting rid of swirls, or scratches from poor prep.
What kind of pad did you use, was you backer pad flat, was it soft, rigid. What grit did you sand to before you went to the liquids?
wool bonnets are made for compounding and cutting, foam pads are made for polishing, there are different foam pad and polishes that match them. Depending on how shiny you want the surface there is a lot of steps in the process…all the way down to 3M ultra polish the blue top stuff, use it with a blue foam pad. This is the final step that gets rid of all micro swirls. It’s a automotive material, but it gets that better than factory shine.
Hey if it’s good enough for the automotive industry shiny, then it will more than work with fancy pool toys.
…hey Resinhead, those cars final steps is not applied on surfboards due several reasons; one is that we start to sand with heavier grit than the car guys. Other is that we can burn through the resin and the fiber can show up; yes, you still can burn the Varnish but without the bad consequences as in surfboards; etc
I don't know about anywhere else; but they don't use "Varnish" on cars here in the US.
By no means do I consider myself an expert… but I would say that I have accomplished some nice gloss work in my 17 years of backyard building.
As others who know much more than I have already said, it’s like an apartment building… can’t have a pretty pentoushe unless the foundation is solid.
What I do… (Do this and you will have a mirror gloss finish)
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Sand hot coat with with 100 grit
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I prefer Fiberglass Hawaii’s Gloss… Reichold to me is too thick… Propper catalization is key, as are room temps and ambient temps. You want to this to kick in about 8-12 minutes. Any longer and you risk getting runs and seperation. Gloss in the am in low humidity. Ideal ambient temps is 65-75 degrees (I’ve glossed in as low as 50, and as high as 90… it just gets dicier when you are out of the ideal temp range). Propper brush technique, crossover once, crossover twice the other, then nose-to-tail and walk away. Open miller hi-life… drink it, in 10 minutes it should have kicked. Go enjoy the day!
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Now the magic starts… I dry sand 300 then 400, then 600. have ot keep the sander moving fast.
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Then I use 3M super duty rubbing compound with wool bonnet… again, technique is critical… firm pressure at first then lighten up on the sander as the compound does it’s magic.
- You could be done at this stage. I’ve seen rack boards that look worse than mine at this stage, but I go a few extra steps. After the Heavy duty, I use a fine compund and repeat the buffing process.
- By now you will have an decent, “wet look” to the finish. But to really bring out the mirror goodness, I use 3M Finnesse-It. It’s a marine polish. For this I switch to the ligher grade bonnet… the one that looks like those toys at the end of pnecil erasers with the crazy orange hair.
- Lastly, I use 3m Marine wax. Apply by hand, and then polish off with the same pad as the FInnesse it.
- Crack open a Hi-Life, take pic, upload to Instagram!
That is what I do and I have not seen a rack board with a gloss that is any better than mine, and in most cases they are no where near as good. It’s time consuming and I am sure there are better methods that take less steps to get the same level of shine… but variety is the spice of life, and I feel that if you want something to last a lifetime, then whey not take an extra day to invest in it.
BTW… thanks Kokua for most of the above.
Drew
we talked about this before. The polish compounds are for once you have a fairly scratch free surface… Like paint
…ok Mcding just enough, better to continue with the thread.
Tgpliny: checking you list, one of the swirl problems is that you start with 220 grit; you should start with finer grits to obtain a non swirled surface, or if you, for several reasons needs to start with 220, better you know a lot about how much pressure to the sander is the best, sanding angles, etc.
If you have a perfect gloss coat, you should start with 400 grit and a super soft ferro pad.
If you have a good gloss coat you can start 360 or if you have some drops, etc with 320 but very light on the sander.
There s a huge thread on the archives about gloss and polish with all the techniques and different opinions; take a look at it.
…I was talking about the micro scratches that you have mention; no necessity to remove them cause we do not have em…
-so Mcding do you think that is only paint what you see on the cars?; normally there are tints and the thickness is obtained with PU clears…
…so when this wanker that do not contribute too much here will be deleted?
and yes, you do not know Spanish and you are not enough smart to read the other languages in the can…
Any time you say. Then you can contribute the "chat" and be the big dog. Rap,Rap, Rap. They call him the Rapper.
PU clear coats are not varnish. I've sprayed alot of two-pac clear coats on sailbords while living on Maui. Two-pac automotive clear coats are not varnish. I don't have to think, I know.
Nothing says vanity better that a perfectly polished surfboard. Of course I write this because I am the world’s worst polisher. Still for best results Reichold gloss, a good sanding to 600 then"surfboard polish 2#, and Mcguiars 5#.
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I want to hear the best polish procedures those who are willing to share. Im using Meguairs but Im not too happy with results.
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My comments are for Resin Research Epoxy Resin......When I was in the car world I was so EFFing good at color sanding and buffing..I was like a hero...and the shop owner got all the credit...all I got was a small pay check and a bad back. Is your surfboard a master piece or a pool toy? How much money do you want to give me????
I plan on surfing my board. The deck gets wax. No buffing there. Power sand the hot coat with 60 or 80. Lay out a perfect epoxy "gloss coat"...it's an art...sand that with 100/150/220....stop...it's a surfboard not a Show Car. Coat that Mother with floor finish...ha ha ha.....go surfing....no one will ever know
Ray---------- That's excellent advice for Epoxy. Or for a sanded poly with a wipe on finish.
…Mcding, I m here with a can of Glasurit lacquer, or clear or Varnish, etc in my hand and say all these names; depends on the language and the translation. Also depends on the year, sometimes they do not put one and put the other name.
2 parts, yes and Glasurit is the best or one of the best brands, ask Mclaren, Mercedes and the top car brands that is what they use.
So we are talking about the same.
I don't have to ask anybody. I already know. PPG and Omni. I think you get screwed up in the translation. Varnish isn't even in the same universe. Varnish and normal lacquer are applied to front doors and cabinets. Not surfboards or cars. But,, I'm sure you'll straigten me out, because I'm a studid gringo and obviously don't know $#!t.
Alright well heres where Im at and feel free to bitch me out if you dont like it I can take it. Heres my procedure.
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I gloss with Reichold, goes on pretty good
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220 dry, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000 sometimes 1200 all wet
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wipe down with microfiber
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meguiars compound with buff pad, i get swirls every f*cking time
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meguiars swirl remover with a soft pad (still can vaguely see swirls)
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liquid car wax
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pad it up
Heres a pic attached, maybe im a wackjob but I still am not happy with the shine. Dont mind how I retartedly put the pad on wrong it was the first SUP ive ever made.
…you are so funny, one of the funniest characters in this forum; a know it all guy, but never posted anything to back up anything, only couple of pictures, cause you are a backyarder man, one that think that is not. Always doing mortal jumps to try to win the chat.
-I commented that we are talking about the same but you, know it all, still tried to go on this on and on.
here s a picture that shows what I said in the other comment:
