So where the boat has been docked over the years there's several scratches …
So where the boat has been docked over the years there's several scratches on the port side especially towards the bow. The kiddo and I have his and her Sanders now. So reduce our learning curve in this painful process!!! We've got a huge box of varying grades of sanding discs from 80 grit to 3000 grit. We've got some spots that are obviously going to need to go to the dent repair shop or something. Is this top layer oxidation? And do I take it all down to bare metal before I start going up in the grit on sandpaper? We are going back to bare aluminum not sure of the finish yet. All paint above the waterline is being removed, the white bottom is staying. #rocket
Depends on your intentions polishing or paint
I wouldn’t sand the whole boat you may want to look into walnut blasting or some type of plastic media blast
It all depends on how nice you want the outcome. Di you plan on removing every single scratch? If so you might as well start with 80 and work up from there. But be careful not to stay in one spot for long. Other than removing a lot of aluminum it will also work harden the area.
80 grit might be too aggressive. I used 250 to remove scratches and help remove anodizing. I polished mine, thought the 250 was a little harsh.
I see your post on feathercraft.net Read the threads on finishing. Lots of good stuff. Glad you are aboard !!
Spent about 3-4 hours sanding it with the buffer from 80 grit down to 1000 grit… Then also did a thousand grit down to 3000 grit by hand… This was the part that had the worst dings and scratches from docking…. Polish next
You’re doing a great job