Steve M Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Hello all, after a vynil boot cover has been fitted for years on my car, it's left annoying swirl marks on the paintwork I tried Mer earlier, it's not having any effect except for showing the swirl marks clearer ! I've looked on eBay for ' gel coat / fibreglass restorer' , all I can find is a product that looks just the ticket, but it's in the USA anyone using anything similar sourced in the Uk ? Cheers Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 You can get specific products for the task from boating places, ships chandlers etc. That said, Farecla G3 is by far the most frequently recommended product on kit car forums. It's quite an aggresive cutting compound. It can be applied by hand, though machine use is easier. Gives excellent results, but don't forget it's a first, (or second, after wet and dry paper) step, you will still need to use a fine polish, ie one with some fine cutting/abrasive quality afterwards. Personally, I've used the Auto Glym Silicon Resin Polish afterwards to great effect, but no doubt there are more modern polishes out there now! When I run out of G3 I keep meaning to try the 3M cutting compounds, which also come highly recommended. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dombanks Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Did you have to be careful using the G3 not to cut into the colour? I've used the megs DA microfibre system on the BMW and that worked a treat. Was thinking of giving it a quick spin over the Westy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerodynamix Ltd Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I use G3 too , will be just the job , as Dave says machine polish is best but can be done by hand too . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve M Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Thanks for the replies ! As soon as Dave mentioned G3, I remember I had some of that sent out as a freebie with a car mag subscription a few months ago, but I put it somewhere safe & now can't find it! Will resume the hunt again tomorrow Thanks again Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Make sure it's the proper trade cutting compound! I know that sounds daft, but, (some time ago now) I saw a load of Farecla product starting to appear in Halfords under the G3 brand name. It looked to be more regular waxes/polishes and light cutting compounds/restorer than the proper trade stuff. I suspect they just decided the G3 brand name had got so strong they were going to piggyback off of it.., This is is what we mean, Whereas this is what I mean by the Halfords stuff. I honestly don't know how course a cutting co pound they have in that last range, but it would be a brave retail store that sold something as aggressive as the proper stuff to regular retail customers. An unsuspecting buyer could cut through their tin tops clear coat in record time if they didn't know what they were doing! Proper G3 (first link) is quoted as being able to remove up to 1500 grit wet and dry sanding marks. (Though personally, I'd always go finer with the wet and dry to give the polishing an easier time of it. Especially if hand polishing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy (Sycho) Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Can't see the halfords stuff being much good or is that what you wear when polishing Dave! Is that from the Halfords "speciality" gimp range? If I wore that I think I'd accidentally end up polishing something else entirely it'd be that tight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Pretender Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Always a good idea to try whatever polish you have on your garage shelf before looking for specific brands such as those already recommended. You may already have something up to the job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 You'd usually know if you had anything close, these are way more abrasive than T Cut or your average car spares place rubbing compounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Pretender Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 I actually really like t-cut as a product. It’s not a modern polish and doesn’t use diminishing abrasives so regularly gets slammed by the detailing purists. It does do a job though so if you have some laying around it could be worth having a few passes with it. In theory a more abrasive polish will make lighter work but there’s nothing to stop one using a medium abrasive and a bit of extra elbow grease Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dombanks Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 i believe the halfords farecla stuff is like a cut down thing for non professionals. i got some to try and get a little scratch out and it worked ok. the videos and promo stuff for it make it look pretty easy. the megaires system and a das6 DA worked way better. i was just a little worried about it being too heavy on the westy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Nah, as long as your careful to check the gel coat thickness first you'd be surprised how heavily you can go. I'd be very surprised if you could get any cutting compounds to go through in any reasonable time frame. The best/thickest factory gel coat will easily take heavy 400 grit sanding, the thinnest, I'd be wary of even 1200 for too long. Essentially, the more clearly you can see a random pattern of short straight lines in it, (actually the texture of the chopped strand mat showing through, known as print through) the thinner the gel coat layer is. Note, a gel coat thickness this low isn't in itself a problem, it's just caused by the way the grp has been layed up and cured. A very course mat has been used directly against a relatively thin gel coat layer, and the gel coat starts to follow the line of the rovings. In an ideal world, you would use a layer or two of very fine CSM immediately next to the gel coat, with heavier layers on top of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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