I just used some silmar gloss on a board and if I’m not mistaken, You gloss then buff, right? No sanding involved? When it cured, there were streaks in it like a regular hot coat, but not as noticable as a regular hotcoat. Is there a better gloss or did I leave out a step? 75 air temp. 30 cc’s of catalyst to about a third of a quart of resin. Oh yeah, using 3M compound to buff with a milwaukee 3000 r.p.m. sander w/ polishing pad
I’ve found that you must sand a gloss coat. Start with 320 wet/dry and use it dry. Then follow with 400 and 600 using the same method. Then polish out with a buffer and a polishing compound. Cleanlines showed me this method because he hates to polish boards!
I was in a production shop a while back, and those guys were going straight from glossing to polishing, no sanding. Seems like that is the easiest way. If I do sand, can I use the higher grit paper on my sander, or is this done by hand. seems like the long way of doing it, but I am new at glossing and just looking for some answers. Thanks.
I have yet to see a gloss coat that’s perfectly flat. Some sanding should be done if you want a finish that’s as close to perfect as possible. But only sand just enough: the gloss coat is thin and you can easily sand through it.
Use your sander and a soft power pad. Easy does it.
Thanks for the info guys. What type of polish or buffing compound do you use?
Howzit T-1, Use shurlustre for rubbing compound,as for the streaks in your gloss you might have used a little to much catalyst and the resin didn’t have enough time to smooth out. I use 25cc’s for about 20 oz gloss resin which kicks in about 10 mins. Aloha, Kokua
Kokua, do you sand your glosses before polishing? I understand you are master at glossing. I’m almost 100% sure these guys at that factory were not sanding. They went from gloss room to polihing room. They put out a showroom finish. Not sure what kind of gloss they were using.
Super softpad using 320 dry…next 500 (not 400 or 600) dry.Keep the RPM’s slow.As the 500 wears down it will be like using 1000 grit.Don’t buy precut discs…cut your own and leave little points (no swirl marks…THANKS to Rob Brown for this one).Surluster Surfboard compound with wool pad…add a little water as you go,the pad may seem dry but water will pull compound out of the pad,a windex type bottle is good for this.I like variable speed Milwaukee’s for the weight.Finally get a new pad (or clean the old one) and hit it with ebony machine cleaner if you can get it.Machine polishing is pretty and all that but it cuts the wax off of the gloss surface and actually makes the surface less durable.If it aint going into the showroom why bother? R.B.
super soft pad…where to get one? power pad brand?
Teddy I blew mine out and forget the name but it was not a powerpad.It is much softer and the foam is grey in color…it came from Atlantic Surf Materials or Fiberglass of Florida. R. B.
I believe the automotive finishing guys use specialty pads from a company called Ferro. They have a large catalog of different pad sizes and foam densities. Tom S.
Yep…Ferro was the name.We surfboard guys are like Fred Flinstone when it comes to abrasive and polishing technology.Check out all of the new stuff developed for auto body paint stuff and you will be amazed.Thanks Tom. R.B.