Heavy Oxidation Removal and Wax

[MalIbuCPA]

Just bought my first Malibu. Found a great deal on a '95 Respnse with under 300 hours on it. It is red and white. I would take pictures but it is still in storage until next week when I take possession.

I bought it from my neighbor on the lake and we both live on the east side of the lake.

The setting sun has really oxidized the the paint at the back of the boat.

My question is what is the best product for a DIY treatment for oxidation? I am looking at getting the 3M oxidation and wax . This seems to have the best reviews online and it has a wax in it so there is only one aplication.

Does anyone have anything that might work better? If it does not have a wax in it what would be the best wax for it after removing the oxidation?

Thanks

[shade]

Congrats on the new boat!

If the oxidation is as heavy as you say, you will probably need a 2 or 3 step process depending on how good you want it to look. I don't think the wax w/ oxidation remover is going to be aggressive enough to remove heavy oxidation. It will bring some of the red back, but if you really want it to shine these kind of products usually take a lot of time and effort and you will probably get frustrated and quit.

Unfortunately I can't recommend any products becuase I don't remember what I used (it wasn't the best though, I do know that), but you can't go wrong w/ 3M. Main thing is to get the right products for the job (see recommendation below). I did a job like this on a 1995 Cobalt. It was a lot of work because it was a large area. I had to 1. wetsand, 2. compound, 3. polish, 4. wax. You may be able to eliminate some of these steps, but what I found through frustration is that it took too long to remove heavy oxidation w/ compound w/o a good buffer/pad which is why I wetsanded. I now have a good buffer, but there are still many areas on a boat that the buffer cant get to and will require good ole elbow grease.

I recommend you go to: www.jamestowndistributors.com. They have all the products you will need for boat restoration and they have a pretty good "How to" section on their website and I'm sure if you call them up they can give even more detailed how to.

If you need a buffer, I wouldn't recommend one of the random orbital ones like they sell at Walmart in the auto section. Get a real sander/buffer like the pros use just don't buy the brands that the pros use (too expensive). I bought mine at Harbour Freight tools for about $30. Its not as durable as a Dewalt or Porter Cable, but for something I use 1-2 times/year its great, plus if it breaks I can buy 3-4 for the price of one Dewalt.

Good luck, I hope this windy post helps.

Edited March 28, 2009 by shade

[SCOTTDOMINE]

Agreed on these steps for the oxidation and so forth. Are you sure that it's oxidation that you have? Perhaps you have some build-up on the gelcoat. Do a search for Tony's Topical Toilet on this site and that'll get off anything that shouldn't be there. I also agree w/ the buffer, buy a high-speed one, not the cheap orbital. I also got mine at Harbour Freight and use it quite often actually and it seems to hold up just fine.

[NAM75]

Maguires has a good 3 step kit for medium oxidation.....remover, wax, polish.

Buy some good wool pads for the oxidation and change or clean them often...I did one side with 2 pads, washed them and did the other side....Let the buffer and the pad do the work.

[Michigan boarder]

I bought a '94 Echelon that was horribly oxidized and looked pink instead of white. I had to re-do all of the red above the rubrail. I also had to remove all hardware and do the transom. About 2/3 of the sides were good, but the 1/3 towards the stern needed to be done as well. Here's what I did:

1. Wet sand with sanding block and 800 grit

2. Wet sand with sanding block and 1500 grit

3. Bought a power polisher/buffer on Amazon, $70, not as cheap as Harbor Tools but not as expensive as DeWalt. Used Turtle Wax polishing compound. Polished all red areas at 2,000RPM

4. Waxed

Turned out beautiful, it was the first time I ever did anything like that. The sanding took forever, but it was worth it. Now I just need to keep it waxed and under the covered boat lift. It brought 100% of the red back out, and looks almost like new. Not as glossy as new, but close, and good and red.

[skicrave]

Not as glossy as new, but close, and good and red.

You can restore the gloss by using a more aggressive polishing compound, and then working up through your abrasives to a very fine compound on a soft pad.

Kudos on you for getting your hands dirty and doing this yourself!