I use a Porter Cable 7424 (I prefer it because it's variable and you can slow it down a lot) with the foam polishing pads (Porter Cable 54745) for the bulk of the work. They are easier to control than wool pads for me. Although, lately I've been buying the Lake Country CCS foam pads, which have various densities and shapes. I like the orange flat pads for heavy cleaning and prep (minimal, it can cut fast!), blue flat pads for lighter cleaning and the blue curved for final polishing.
The chemicals that work for me are a few 3M products. I'll use #05954 for heavy oxidation and #06011 micro grit (the 06011 probably 90% of the time is sufficient) to polish mild oxidation.
For protection I typically use their cleaner/wax #09009 about once per year or maybe every other year. It's slightly abrasive, though, so for a maintenance coat I use #09027, which is just a boat wax with no abrasives. I do this once a year with a light touch, just enough to work it in.
Here's some of the other stuff needed to repair the gel coat and structural fiberglass.
For top coat repairs (most typical), make sure you get gel coat and not regular resin, the color will be wrong. Also don't forget to add surfacing agent otherwise it will take forever for the resin to set. Fiberglass resin only cures in the absence of oxygen, so I use a surfacing agent and cover the gel coat with plastic. The surfacing agent rises to the skin of the gel coat and creates an air barrier.
I use the styrene monomer as an additive to the resin, helps it stick better to wood. The little bottles are Kerox tints, one is sandstone and the other regular white (the ratios are my secret to color matching). I just use regular MEK as the hardener for the resins.
Yes, I do 'Nest repairs for hire. Please drop me an email for quotes...
