I am thinking of getting a power tool to help me to polish/wax the
gelcoat of my 18-ft boat (it is quite dull). I really don't want to do
this by hands based on my experience of polishing/waxing my car that is
smaller than the boat. I would like to know the right power tool to do
this.

Based on past posts in newsgroup, people seems to use a rotary polisher
to polish/wax their boats. It is like the Makita sander/polisher. But
we must use it very carefully. If we stay in one place for too long,
it may remove too much gelcoat.

I am also thinking of using a random orbital polisher such as
Porter-Cable 7424. It is supposed to be safer to use around gelcoat or
painted surface (like on a car body). But past posts seemed to say
that it is not effective for restoring dull gelcoat. All these get me
confused.

My questions a

- Is a rotary polisher good for tough job such as restoring and
polishing very aged and dull gelcoat?

- Is a rotary polisher not suitable for polishing/waxing painted
surface such as on a car body? I "guess" the reasoning is that paint
is much thinner than gelcoat and has a higher risk of removing too much
paint if the rotary polisher stays in one place for too long, right?

- Is a random orbital polisher good for small job such as waxing
gelcoat that has already been polished, or polishing/waxing painted
surface (like on a car body)?

- Is a random orbital polisher not suitable for polishing aged and
dull gelocat? I "guess" the reason is that random orbital polisher
runs at a lower speed and will take too long to get the job done,
right?

Having said that, may I still use a random orbital polisher to
polish/wax the dull gelcoat? This is just a matter of taking longer to
get done, right? How much longer are we talking about here? This is
not optimal, but is still OK, right?

Should I simply draw a line between boats and cars and say that we
should use a rotary polisher for polishing/waxing boats, and should use
a random orbital polisher for polishing/waxing cars?

Any idea? Thanks.

Jay Chan