Just curious if anyone has a good scratch removal product for a fiberglass boat?  I mean I'm not looking to do miracle work here, but there are a few scratches on our boat that I feel could be worked out easily with a little help from some sort of compound.  What do you all use for big or little scratches/scrapes?

Mine usually get hid under other scratches.

If they really bother you, you can sand them out with 2000 grit wet/dry and then buff it out with a fine buffing compound. The only problem with this is, that spot will be so shiney, you will want to do the rest of the boat. That's why I like my method of taking care of scratches. Should mention, this is for very minor surface scratches.  Deeper scratches and you will sand too much of the gel coat off and get down into the base coat or metal flake, and that's not good.

I'm the same way about my boat as my truck, I buy a 4WD truck to go places I don't care to walk and I buy a bass boat to fish in areas the bass like to hold, so neither of mine a pretty for very long.

Yea I really don't want to do any sanding, just maybe something that will make some of them a little less noticeable.

Go by a automotive paint supply store and get you some 3M Hand Glaze (not the Machine Glaze) and follow the directions on the bottle.  I will look brand new when done.

3M also makes a complete line of marine cleaners/polishes including a liquid rubbing compound that I have used to remove scratches.  I have used all their products for several years with good results.

If you use the rubbing compound you will want to follow it up with their marine wax.  My buddy had a pretty good scratch on his rig recently and we used that combination to work it out.  No sign of it now.

Shortbasser

I don't know if this will help you but here goes.  Many years ago I had a near new skeeter with the full metal flake hull.  Got it up against a T post just barely sticking out of the water at Fork.  It put a deep scratch through the clear down the side of my boat that just made me sick.  Saw a deal on TV and decided to try it.  Got some fiberglass resin and mixed it up.  Applied it to the scratch and the put lengths of scotch tape over it.  When I pealed the tape off after waiting for the resin to harden the scratch was gone.  Looked great but had a little down side.  After several months the resin would turn chalky.  If I hit it with a polish/wax it would look good again though which I had to do until I changed boats.  big

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.  I think I'll look into some of the 3M products, they seem to be doing exactly what I'm looking for.  I have some new pictures of the boat to post soon, we finally got her out of storage and she will be on the soon hopefully.  Except my dad broke the trolling motor taking it apart, for what reason I'll never know, so we have to get a new one of those.

littlefisher

Go by a automotive paint supply store and get you some 3M Hand Glaze (not the Machine Glaze) and follow the directions on the bottle. I will look brand new when done.

how would that work for oxidation? i got a used  ( 84 ) boat last winter that im restoring and have tried a couple of gelcoat polishing products with marginal success.