Product to use to buff out fine scratches on OC1

canadaAM

Good day.
I have a 2012 Hurricane OC1 that is mostly black. There are a numerous fine scratches on the bottom of the hull, made more visible by the fact the that color is black. None of the scratches are deep. I was going to do some touch ups, and was wondering what product paddlers normally use on their OCs?
Any feedback on this is appreciated.
Cheers.

Submitted by canadaAM on Fri, 08/29/2014 - 10:46am

red_pepper

Is your boat painted, gel-coated, or clear coated? If they're very shallow and only in the finish, you may be able to buff them out with automotive polish. More likely, if the scratches are a little deeper but still only in the finish, you'll want to wet sand with a series of progressively finer grit sand papers, probably starting with 800 or finer and moving to 2000 (800, 1200, 2000), then buff with an automotive polish and wax. If your boat is clear-coated (as it probably is if it's black carbon) you may be able to pick up some automotive clear coat and touch it up first before sanding/buffing. The paint on some of the outriggers is fairly thin and prone to flaking; not sure you could really do much in terms of buffing out scratches if it's in paint. Gel coat can be cleaned up pretty easily, if the scratches aren't too deep. You mght want to check with the manufacturer first to see what type of finish they applied, and their recommended method of touch-up/scratch removal.

#1 Fri, 08/29/2014 - 11:24am

canadaAM

Good call on contacting the manufacturer. On the website, there is some info on the paints they use (see below). The FAQs refer to deeper scratches, but I can contact them about finer ones. Thanks.
Here's what I got from the Ozone website:
All Ozone canoes are finished with polyurethane paint.
We use polyurethanes because they don’t chalk with UV exposure like gelcoat.
Prior to 2012 we used colored topcoats from PPG, in 2012 we switched to a basecoat/clearcoat system. This allows us to do more intricate graphics.

#2 Fri, 08/29/2014 - 11:43am

onnopaddle

Real world info here. Much of it also applies to paint / clear systems but most cases here, if your fingernail catches, you prolly cannot wetsand and buff to make it go away. Always try buffing FIRST ( 'shine' the scratches ) to see if you are satisfied with results before going crazy with paper.
http://www.surfskiracing.org/2009/08/how-to-touch-up-a-gelcoat-scratch-…
aloha,
pog
Edit to add ... RP, 2000 will easily take out 600 so no need to remove so much material and possibly burn through thin paints and clears even before you get fine enough to polish : )

#3 Fri, 08/29/2014 - 1:24pm

zumapop

I have the same issue with my black scorpious xs. Was thinking of painting the whole thing, I hate the black because low visibility and how hot it gets. Any thoughts on painting an oc1?

#4 Fri, 08/29/2014 - 5:18pm