Ill warn everyone now...I have a lot of photos...
Well to start, when I bought my 1989 180 Horizon last October and it was mildly oxidized. However 2 weeks in the sun on the water finished it off, plus no wax/buff etc all summer, to say the least it was pretty rough. I decided before putting it away for the winter I would get it cleaned up. Also since I am moving to Baltimore and leaving the boat stored in Cincy all winter, I wanted it to be turn key when I come to get it in the spring.
I spent all last Thursday getting it cleaned up. I used a Porter Cable buffer with a fairly abrasive pad.
I started by cleaning the boat with Dawn dish soap to take off anything greasy/oily/or remaining wax. The I moved on to 3M Restorer & Wax.
This stuff is amazing. No final polish required, and nothing to wipe off. You simply work in 2x2 areas and continually rub the product in until it there is no material left on the surface. Worked at 4500 rpms with heavy pressure, to 2500 medium pressure, and 1000 light pressure, and finished by rubbing in with a clean terry cloth.
It is a fairly tedious process, but it was well worth the work. The pics below speak for themselves:
Oxidation condition to start:
Prepped by taping rub rail and other bright work on the boat.
More Oxidation:
I took a 3" piece of painters tape and did a once over to the right of the tape to see what one pass with the 3M would do. I was amazing by the results.
After two applications of the 3M product in heavily oxidized areas. The final result:
Heading to storage for the winter
It was an all day ordeal, but was worth every minute. I can not get over the transformation. It shows what good product combos will do. It even removed most of the visible scratches in the side of the boat from the previous owner.
Hopefully this can provide an example for people who have similar oxidation problems. I can not recommend this stuff enough, it is amazing!
Thanks for looking, happy winter!
-Rob
