# Ship Shape TV - How to wetsand, cut and buff gel-coat



## Mike Phillips

*Ship Shape TV - How to wetsand, cut and buff gel-coat*

*Featured on Ship Shape TV*​





First, here's some pictures that show the excssive orange peel or surface texture in the gel-coat after it was sprayed as a part of restoring this classic Glastron.










*Not there is zero gloss or shine in the gel-coat finish...*



















Frame-up shot
I'm take a far show of the corner so you can see what I'm photgraphing...










Close-up of the above shot...










Extreme close-up of the above shot --> Notice the rough texture? This will all have to be sanded FLAT.










These are the overhead florescent lights....










Notice how hard it is to SEE the florescent lights reflecting off the bow of the boat? 

This is due to the rough, pebbled texture of the freshly sprayed gel-coat. This is NORMAL and this is why fresh gel-coat MUST be sanded and buffed to create a beautiful looking finish on the boat. There's basically ZERO reflection of the lights overhead.










Here's the hull before we started....





































This too will have to be sanded till the surface is flat....










Here's the finished results....
I took these shots the next morning, both the top cap and the hull had been sanded, compounded, polished and waxed....























































Now let's take a look at how this project rolled out....


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## Mike Phillips

Delivered to Marine 31 headquarters....
Here's how the Glastron project arrived. Bert and Mike from Ship Shape TV built a wooden jig on a boat trailer to hold both the Hull and the Top Cap at the same time in order to transport the hull and top cap to Marine 31 and only have to make one trip.










We moved the hull and the top cap off the trailer and onto fender stands to film the sanding and buffing segments for Ship Shape TV.










Here's Steve, one of the cameramen filming the opening with John Greviskis










For the TV show, John, Bert, Steve, Mike and me all block sanded, then machine sanded, then compounded, polished and waxed the top cap and while we did these steps the cameramen would film each step for the TV show.

The above was all done on Tuesday and Wednesday. Fast forward to Thursday, my team of guys showed up at 2:00pm and we started in on the hull and also re-sanding any of the areas that still had orange peel on the top cap.

Because we knocked out most of the grunt work on the top cap while filming the TV show and because it has a lot less real-estate than the hull, the below pictures are shown in the order they were taken so you'll see the pictures going back and forth between people working on the top cap and the hull with the top cap getting finished first followed by the hull.

_Let's go....._

Here's Frank blocking out the hull. We started with #500 grit 3M Wet/Dry










Here's Rick an Scott block sanding....










Here's Chris and me blocking out the front of the hull....










Over on the top cap Robert and Mark are hand sanding with #1000 grit Nikken Finishing Papers....










Here's Andy hand sanding with #1000 grit....










Back to the hull you see the guys hard at work.... when you see the BEFORE pictures which show just how rough the surface was before we sanded you'll see why we had a lot of sanding to do....










Frank block sanding....










Eric block sanding.... We did an extreme makeover on Eric's boat here....

*How to wetsand, cut and buff a gel-coat boat*










Here's the Marine Extreme Team working on the top cap....










Here's Rick using the Rupes TA50 with some #1000 3M Trizact....



















In the back you can see Mike the cameraman capturing all the action while everyone is working hard and fast....










Here's Steve the cameraman filming us sand the hull....










Here's Andy machine sanding the top cap using #1000 Trizact....










Here's Frank cleaning his wool pad with a spur before compounding....










Scott and Frank compounding the hull....










That's Jeff in the back compounding the sides and Andy up front compounding the deck....










Here's John watching Robert DiTerrlizzi make the Flex PE14 dance....










More to come.....









__________________


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## Mike Phillips

*Continued.....*

Andy compounding using the new Captain's One-Step Compound & Polish.










Jeff is a master with the rotary buffer....





































Here's John and I machine sanding with #1000 Trizact....










This is very messy work....




























_More to come...._


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## Mike Phillips

*Continued.....*

Robert, Andy and Jeff are starting the polishing work, they've switched over to using the Flex 3401 with blue 6.5" Hybrid Foam Cutting pads with the Captain's One-Step Compound & Polish.




























Here's John with the top cap after the sanding, compounding and polishing steps... at this time there is no wax on the gel-coat.




























*Wax time for the top cap!*
Here's Robert using the same tool used to polish the top cap only he's switched over to a soft red foam waxing pad, lowered the speed to the 3 setting and is machine applying Marine 31 Gel-coat Carnauba Wax + Sealant.




























Still more to come.....


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## Mike Phillips

And again, here's the finished results....
I took these shots the next morning, both the top cap and the hull had been sanded, compounded, polished and waxed....























































As you can see.... the finish quality has come a long way from what we had to start with....

Here's the Team Shot... 
A few guys left early as this project started at 2:00pm and we finished at 10:00pm....










*From left to right....*

Jeff, Robert, Antti, Tim, Rick, Chris, John, Eric, Eli, Mark, Andy, Craig and Frank...










_Nice work guys!_





































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_*Made by boat people for boat people...*_


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## Mike Phillips

*A few comments....*

*Thank You!*
First I'd like to thank all the guys that traveled from far and near to be a part of this project. Wetsanding a brand new gel-coat from start to finish is a HUGE undertaking. The gel-coat finish we started with was as rough as concrete pavement. That's the nature of the beast, it's how gel-coat lays out when sprayed onto a hull and then air dried.

I'd also like to thank John Greviskis and his Team from Ship Shape TV, Bert, Mike and Steve. Not only do the run the cameras and do all the behind the scenes work to make a TV show come together but they also wetsand, cut and buff boats!

*Mold Finish*
Normally when a boat is built the gel-coat is sprayed into a mold and because the mold is sanded and buffed till it's smooth, when you pull the boat out of the mold the finish mimics the mold and thus the outside finish on a boat is smooth and even shiny.

*50+ Year Restoration Project*
This is John's personal boat, a Glastron built in 1960. John chose to have the boat sprayed with gel-coat because by spraying with gel-coat a much THICKER layer or film-build of polyester resin could be applied. The thickness was measured and averages around *25 mils*.

Had the boat been painted, the average film build would have been in the *4-6 mil* range.

The thicker, incredibly tough gel-coat resin will hold up better and longer to damage such as bumping into wooden docks or pulling onto shore. With a paint job, the paint would easily chip off, not so with the fresh gel-coat finish. And this is why John chose to respray new gel-coat instead of simply painting.

The challenge then is to sand and buff the sprayed gel-coat till it as a smooth, shiny surface like a boat pulled from a mold and that's where Marine 31 and my team of guys excelled.

*You can do it too!*
We hand sanded, machine sanded, compounded, polished and machine waxed and I think the results speak for themselves.

You can duplicate this sanding and buffing process yourself for,

*

Fiberglass repairs
Heavy oxidation removal
Fresh gel-coat
*
:thumb:


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