Wolf's Chemicals vs the 47 foot sea monster in Cro

Hello all!

So the year before last a very good customer of mine asked me if I would go to Croatia to handle his boat, but due to time constraints on both our parts it didn't come together like we'd planned. Still wanting his boat looking nice for the summer, he chose to have it "polished" by the locals that year. He called me after that summer and told me that the next year he insists that I go and do his boat, so we made sure that this time things worked out right.

I wouldn't say that December to March for me is a "scratching my bum" time, but I don't do a whole lot of detailing during this time, so this was basically my "first" detail of the season. Now when someone tells you they want you to polish their 47 foot boat, the first thing you try to imagine is, "How big is that really?" Truth be known, is that I really couldn't imagine how big of a polishing job it would be... Therefore I brought along my faithful sidekick Atilla, aka "Mr AutoGlym Hungary" (AG distributor here), to join in the festivities.

When we arrived to the hotel, we threw our bags down, got changed and went to the marina. After a few swear words about the size of the boat and the condition it was in, we decided to get cracking on it even though the sun was almost going down... It was BIG and BAD. Severely oxidized everywhere, especially the white parts (meaning most of the boat) and had a myriad of holograms from top to bottom.

So on with the detail! This was the condition of the boat on arrival... a bit lifeless >>









Cleaning up some mucky areas with Wolf's WT-2N APC.



A very dull hull...



The temperature wasn't so bad the first day/night... perfect for a little night polishing. We wanted to get rid of as many of the uglies as possible on the dark parts of the paint while we could still take advantage of the halogens. Fighting the daylight was a bit of a challenge.



The uglies :doublesho



As with most of my polishing jobs, I (we) switched polish and pad combos several times during this detail. Reason being is that not all damage is the same, therefore different combos are required to get the desired correction. This is of course based on the "take only what you need" theory when it comes to removing paint. Most of the heavy scratches were removed with Wolf's WP-6H and a wool pad, some polishing was done with WP-3N and a finishing pad or polishing pad via DA, Wolf's WP-1N and WP-5N were also used in many places. Oh and this isn't really a "paint" so to speak... it's a gel coat and it's extremely hard... I'd even dare to say it's harder than Euro BMW paint! And for those of you who have never polished a boat before, you don't need a special "boat" polish to get the job done, regular polishes work just the same (I can suggest some good polishes if you're interested )! Here's a 50/50 video... the biggest 50/50 I've ever done >>

YouTube - 47 foot Atlantis 50/50

And some stills under the halogens and natural light







Some oxidation on the side of the boat that had to be removed 50/50



Tired and hungry, we ended the first of 4 days at about 21.30 and went back to the hotel for some rest. "Can't wait to relax," I thought, but unfortunately there was someone next door that didn't share my sentiment for "quiet time". Donkey Boy...



I really value my sleep, and the whole time I was thinking that the jackass next door was going to wake me up in the wee hours of the morning, but it was actually the one next to me... This guy woke up at about 05.30 in the morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed just like in the next picture. Early to bed, early to rise for this one and I am sooo envious of his ability to fall asleep so quickly! This guy fell asleep on the second night while saying, "Good night!" to me!! Literally! OMG!! That's like narcosleepy or something! Lucky guy...



Port side had some nasty damage on it from diesel fuel runs coupled with salt water and the blazing sun... very unforgiving elements.



Zero shine on the stern...



Another crew showed up to do some mechanical and other work including recoating the underside with an anti-algae paint, painting and coating the props, etc.



Me polishing out the back of the boat. Looking at the teak wood on the deck brought back not-so-fond memories of my childhood... We had a 42 foot Bayliner and my father made us oil the teak wood on it every second week whether we used the boat or not. I really hated that boat after a short time . Oh and yes that is an AutoGlym hat I'm wearing . I think my friend Attilla is trying his hardest to convert me to "Glymism" !







A 50/50 near the back deck. The white parts of the boat that had a lot of "human contact" looked like dog poopy. These parts were so oxidized that the soaked up everything they came into contact with and the only thing that would remove it was heavy compounding... APC didn't do a thing but dry it out more.



Atilla removed all of the boat fenders and polished them up too. Here's a fiddy/fiddy.



Gloss restored to the oxidized white parts



a 50/50 of the severely damaged port side



A final sun shot of port side...



The second day we were there was quite nice, but the last 2 days were very cold and windy! Here's Attila waxing starboard side with Collinite 885. Being that I will be going back every Spring to do this boat, I decided to do a test with Colly 885 (starboard side) and Wolf's Body Wrap (port side). This is the first gel coat I've applied Wolf's Body Wrap to, but in theory it should more than outperform 885, but I think the more-porous surface (due to oxidation) may affect it, but we'll see .





Just before finishing, the brushes in my Maki went out . Thankfully there was no more heavy compounding to do! I still tried to do some surgery and change out the brushes with the one's in Attila's polisher, but it seems that Japanese and Chinese organs aren't compatible .



The stainless steel, or "inox" as many refer to it as, was very stained and dull so we polished all of it by hand!

Before



After



Window trim before





After... yes there's still some residue in there, but I couldn't be bothered with climbing down from the ladder and hunting down the camera after cleaning it fully .



Anchor before



And after



All done!















Shiny stern!





Thanks for looking!

- Jesse O'Connor

 

To think you two polished that in two days is incredible! I think I have spent 2 days just polishing a car haha. Great work Jesse, I didn't realize you had a youtube channel either but I like your Wolfs demos. Maybe after a couple of details, I will have some spare cash to send you way.

 

Nice job Jesse! Thats a crap load of work.

 

Wow, that is amazing. Awesome work!

 

That is definitely a crapload of work. Excellent job.

I know a guy that has makita 9227 and he buffs cars everyday at a bodyshop after the spray booth. He always talks about the brushes going out and how he needs to replace them pretty often.

Is that a Makita issue or just a rotary buffer issue? Do these brushes need replacement on Flex rotaries like the new PE14? Where can you get replacement parts like that?

 

That is absolute insanity. An unreal amount of work. Is that boat quite stable on those blocks? Looks like it could tip over at any point!

 

Thanks Christian! Actually it was 4 days, but even that was quite a feat! Hopefully someone from the US will step up to the plate soon and bring in our products! We've been shipping out literally tons of it and we've even made it to Australia now !

Thanks Ken!

Thanks mate! Well just about any rotary uses carbon brushes, so that's just one of those things that you have to replace after time. You can usually get replacement brushes at any store that sells Makita tools. I love my Maki... Had this one for about 5 years now and have literally beaten the hell out of it with the work I do and the only thing I've ever needed to do is replace the brushes... Well worth the money!

Thanks buddy! Yeah it's actually pretty stable, but the huge winds we had there spooked me a bit !

 

That was a detail of epic proportions, enjoyed the read. Imagine how long it would take to do a cruise liner, or maybe they don't detail those

 

Thanks for the write up, the initial site of that boat must have been so overwhelming, even with two people! I think if i owned a boat i'd probably go insane trying to maintain it.

 

wow guys. you did an awesome job. dont think i would be able to do it alone. thing is too big.
what kinda stuff did you use to clean oxidation?