Jerry, What would you recommend to bring out the best in a 30 year old gelcoat, that is in good shape? Well cared for, always covered or indoors, no damage. So the Wizards is the "Glaze" step? Then do you wax over that? I appreciate the tips.
I'm not Jerry, but my recommendation would be to sand with 800-1000 grit, then 1500-2000 grit and a final sand with 3,000. I was in auto body industry for 15 years and when i first started the finest grit was about 1200. Towards the end of the 15 years there was 3,000 grit. There is a night and day difference between the 2 and the amount of actual buffing you have to do to get the shine back. If you finish sand with 3,000 you can buff it back by hand if you had to( good for nooks and crevasses where the buffer cant get. There are a million different compounds you can use. everyone has there favorite company. 3M makes most of it and owns most of the companies.
I always used the 3m products. I typically did not use there heavy duty compound because it was to aggressive and was more abrasive then the 3000 grit paper. Use the purple bottles its the better stuff they are even labeled 1,2,3
http://bit.ly/1yYa3uc I would not use this
http://bit.ly/1EjrHcf unless i was not going to sand at all and just try and buff, even then I'm not a fan of it because it is so course.
Start with #1 and a wool pad doing an area aprox 2ft x2ft. You want to do smaller areas to keep the compound from drying out. Always be careful of edges. With regular paint on a hood you can remove all the paint down to metal in a second if you catch the edge. I've done it! Some people will use a softer wool pad for compound #2 or a foam I think it's more of a preference. I use wool for #2 as well. Then #3 and a foam pad. On dark colors like black it is hard to not get swirl marks and you may have to hand glaze it after glazing with the foam pad.
