Now that I have your attention, here is where we are stopping for the winter trip. This is the look we'll go with for now.The rest comes off easy, with no staining of the gel coat.
You haven't lived till you polish some 22.5's. Real happy with it, even though the decals don't make sense. I am chicken to go completely naked, because if I don't like it, I would have a lot more work to do prepping for the new design (seen in pic).
I trimmed the middle section of the old ribbon up to the same level as the front and rear sections. Seems to look better to me.
This is not for the faint of heart, and my arthritis is kicking in my fingers. I quit counting hours at about 250!
Wish the sun was out, this baby shines.
Cheers
Chris
Looks great I like it simple and clean looking ^.^d
"Naked and Afraid" :)
Looks great Chris..!
And less "dated", and less Tammy Faye Baker or both.
Looks great! And it also looks like you have a really nice shop in which to work. I have shop envy!
You have 250 hours into removing decals? Or does that include buffing/polishing the gel coat as well? Care to share your methodology for either/both?
The wheels look great - what did you use on them?
Thanks. First washed them with soap and water. Then 0000 steel wool lightly with Mothers aluminum polish. Then Mothers polishing ball on a drill. lastly, finish clean/polish with towel.
They were already pretty good, but this woke them up. About 15-20 min. a wheel.
I do my race car the same way, but no mothers polishing ball. All hand with towels. It was really bad when I got it.
Cheers
Took the 3 swirl decals off. Came off in 30 min. Both sides and back.
40 more hours wet sanding and buffing to remove ghosting.
Just need to do the bottom now, no staining there, should be quick.
Got a quote for new stripes as pictured coach, $2000.00- $2500.00
No removal, no buffing, just bringing coached prepped and ready for 3M tape of stripes only. Local vinyl wrap shop that did our last coach.
Chris
Chris any idea of how much gel you had to remove?
Started with 320 and or 400 dry paper on a DA,as there was some small razor blade cuts from prior trimming of edges.
From there worked up to wet 1000, 1200,2000,2500,and 3000 by hand. Then 3 levels of machine polishing.Zero wax.
I bet it was 1/6th to maybe 3/32" or more. Lots more was there. Didn't burn through any where. Man does it shine
Chris
I have shop envy also.
Congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. She looks great!
I'm on a similar polish project. Got the arthritis, so I have to pace it.
I went from 1200 to rubbing compound then to Aqua Buff.
What did you do to your coach today VIII (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=36854.msg350080#msg350080)
Thanks for the input bud,that would work in most places, on most coaches. But ours had super dark green stain's from the band, and dark green swirls.
The coach had been completely deep buffed at a FT rally, and was super shiny when we bought it
Bleach, sun, and muriatic acid wouldn't touch the stains. Had to DA deep to remove it.
8)
Chris