I just had all my vertical wood sanded then varnished. The pro had the same result as me namely a consistent layer of very tiny pin prick like marks throughout. Not dust/no bubles. Sanding them down, filling with more epoxy "varnish", EMC varnish, and layer looks good then they appear all over again.

Help!

Very frustated and broke over trying to fix this (I'd tried multiple times to no avail so went to a pro).

K

Ps: picture off cell phone help very close to surface so pin pricks accented much larger than reality. Again, not dust, way too consistent.

The old vinyl lettering was still in good shape and peeled off without damaging the underlying paint. The residue from the glue was removed with a product called "Sticker-Off!" (West Marine # 9368069). Up until this effort, I have always had to work quite hard to remove the glue residue. With the Sticker-Off!, the removal was quite easy. I highly recommend it. There was absolutely no damage to the underlying paint.

When I put the new vinyl lettering onto the transom, I used the sister product "Sticker-On!" (West Marine # 9368051) to help the application. The Sticker-On! product allowed me to get any bubbles out of the letters easily. I also recommend this product.

Re-naming a boat doesn't happen often in the life of a boat, but these products sure make it a lot easier.

Steve

Paint Overspray

I recently built a shed, and painted it. I didn't have the boat covered, so I got a fair amount of overspray on the boat. Including on the dark plastic windows. Borrowing a tip from auto detailers, I found that using a clay bar removes the paint easily. It works well on very smooth surfaces like gel coat, stainless steel, plastic, etc. It is less effective on textured surfaces, but still works. You can get it at auto parts stores ... here's one kind:

Mothers 07240 California Gold Clay Bar Paint Saving System

Rust spots:

I always seem to get a few rust spots on my white gelcoat. Oxalic acid works well to remove rust, but its pretty dangerous to use straight. Barkeeper's Friend has a bit of it, and its kind to gel coat. I don't know if it would stain a painted boat, but it works great on gelcoat with just light rubbing. You can find it at Home Depot and many grocery stores:

Plastic with Mildew / Rubrails

I think its mildew ... those black spots that show up on flexible plastic like fenders, cowl vents, etc. I start with a mild cleanser like Softscrub and then graduate to this whitewall cleaner if that doesn't do it. You can get Softscrub at the grocery store, and a whitewall cleaner at any auto parts store:

Westleys Bleche-Wite

The one caveat I have about using this cleaner is that it will bleach out latex paint; I'm not sure about how it treats oil based marine paiints, but you have to be careful with it. Rinse really well afterwards.