Rejuvinating a composite glitter deck

[James T]

Has anyone got any advice on the best way rejuvinate an aging gold glitter deck on a composite kayak. Can I just use Pledge? ;-)

[James T]

Obviously I meant "rejuvenate"

[Simon]

Try Halfords or one of the specialist car renovation websites. There are lots of paint restoration products around. T cut is the most popular but there are some more upmarket products around too.

Nearly all of them are very fine cutting pastes which abrade away the oxidised, discoloured, surface layer to restore the colour. For a boat what you then need is to sort out some form of wax polish or other protective finish to keep the water out. A finely abraded finish from the T cut, without the polish/protection, will soon fade again.

Simon.

[TheKrikkitWars]

Try Halfords or one of the specialist car renovation websites. There are lots of paint restoration products around. T cut is the most popular but there are some more upmarket products around too.

Nearly all of them are very fine cutting pastes which abrade away the oxidised, discoloured, surface layer to restore the colour. For a boat what you then need is to sort out some form of wax polish or other protective finish to keep the water out. A finely abraded finish from the T cut, without the polish/protection, will soon fade again.

Simon.

I've had a fair ammount of success in sanding back the abraded/discoloured gel-coat, keying the remaining surface with much ligher sanding then applying several layers of thinned (clear) flowcoat by brush... it's a relatively involved process, and to retain the glitteryness you'd need to be very gentle about how much you sanded off; if you have the option of spraying, you could probably avoid using thinner and use less layers to the same effect.

[James T]

Thanks for the advice - I'll give it a go with some rubbing compound then polish/varnish

JT.

[Terryg]

I agree with your course of action.

Do not sand, or use anything more abrasive that rubbing compound.

Rubbing compound is quite abrasive in its own right, so follow it up with scratch remover or T-Cut to smooth it out a bit.
A couple of coats of polish should then give a great finish.

I assume this is an old competition boat?

If the boat is only a couple of years old it should come up 'as new', but if it is fairly old, then the sun will have discoloured both the pigment and glitter and it will not get back to its original state.

Best of luck
Terry