I'll second the Porter-Cable 7424. I had a couple of other polishers before it.
There's no comparison.

Be sure to get several polishing pads, I find that the annual boat waxing pretty well
goes through one, and you are going to need several passes.




" JimH" jimh_osudad@yahooDOT comREMOVETHIS wrote in message ...

wrote in message oups.com...
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


The PC 7424 works great provided you are using the correct foam pads for the various compounds. We get ours from pinnaclewax.com.
Here is a page explaining the pads: http://pinnaclewax.com/variablepad.html

Also go to rec.boats.cruising and find the thread "Cleaning the Hull" posted on 4/19. Rich Hample posted a great step by step
process for restoring the finish.