When Is it to cold to do gel coat maintenance?

[Kd9truck]

I am up on Long Island and my vessel is on hard, my winter maintenance list because of warmer than normal weather has surprisingly few things left on it. As the title indicates I am now asking the knowledge trust of CF, is it to cold too
1. Acetone clean the gel coat, 2. then Light liquid compound, and 3.wax (non-paste) or ceramic treat?
Cheers

[Orion Jim]

Follow the manufacturer’s application instructions and you will normally get the best results. If you are in a heated building that would be perfect, if not wait for a day or two in the high 50’s at least. The surface of your hull will be colder than the surrounding airs temp. and any wind is a game changer.

[Spot]

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gel+coat+a...&t=ffab&ia=web

A couple returns from this search indicate 60F as a lower limit.

[rslifkin]

It depends on what you're doing. I've cleaned and waxed gelcoat with temperatures in the low 30s before and had good results. Using a paste wax it just takes a little longer as the wax is a bit harder to melt / spread. I also wouldn't do it by hand at that temperature, but with a polisher and waxing pad it's no problem.

[Spot]

Originally Posted by Kd9truck

I am up on Long Island and my vessel is on hard, my winter maintenance list because of warmer than normal weather has surprisingly few things left on it. As the title indicates I am now asking the knowledge trust of CF, is it to cold too
1. Acetone clean the gel coat, 2. then Light liquid compound, and 3.wax (non-paste) or ceramic treat?
Cheers

Sorry, I thought you were applying gelcoat in my other reply...kudos for getting after boat work so early in the season.

[Kd9truck]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

It depends on what you're doing. I've cleaned and waxed gelcoat with temperatures in the low 30s before and had good results. Using a paste wax it just takes a little longer as the wax is a bit harder to melt / spread. I also wouldn't do it by hand at that temperature, but with a polisher and waxing pad it's no problem.

thank you for affirming my same thoughts, and yes with power and semi-liquid wax. I have insulated rubber gloves but the tool is so much more consistent.

[Kd9truck]

Originally Posted by Spot

Sorry, I thought you were applying gelcoat in my other reply...kudos for getting after boat work so early in the season.

No worries, and thank you for the kudos

[Martkimwat]

I cleaned and polished my hull last week in temperatures of 6º~8ºC and it was fine. Used a light compound and wax paste called G2000 which the boatyard uses then followed up with a nano wax, both applied with a rotary polisher (large variable speed angle grinder type) set at about 1500 rpm with a wool mop and light pressure. Not sure why you would want to use acetone for the pre-clean, normal soap and water is good enough and if you have yellow staining, use a product called Y10 (a weak oxalic acid formulation) or a lot of folk use simple brick cleaner, a weak hydrochloric acid solution. Your title for this thread is a bit misleading, as I initially thought you were talking about gelcoat repair. That being said I also did a little bit of that in the same temperatures before I waxed and polished the hull. used a 2kw outside patio heater (bar element type) to warm the area and a 4% activator/hardener mix. left the heater warming the area for an hour after application to ensure it kicked off then left it overnight before sanding back and polishing.

[Kd9truck]

Martkimwat thank you for responding, I use Acetone in a damp cloth application to remove all impurities(including old wax) from the gel coat surface, it is relatively cheap and widely used in this type of application State side, it evaporates and leaves no residue to be picked up into the wax. No rinsing and drying after washing in freezing temps. This time around I will be using a light polishing compound to remove the “black lines” and then sealing with wax again.
Sorry you were mislead, I think of the treatments applied to the gelcoat as “maintenance” , because it needs to be maintained, atleast in my version and yours it does. I will be doing some minor “repairs” as well but I think that is best done in warmer conditions. Ty again

[EmeraldCoastSailor]

Good thread