Amity is a 1986 Ultra 30 that I have owned since 2009. Her (wide) sheer stripe is forest green. I’ve had good luck keeping the color by waxing every year following the initial compounding in 2010. However, the color on the 3/4" red stripe below the wide green one has never come back no matter how much compounding. Now the thing seems to be “weeping” (see photo) and I can’t seem to get rid of the “tear” stains. Has anyone else run into problems with this red stripe and weeping, and if so, what the heck did you do about it?
Apparently you have never owned a red car, that seems to be the nature of red paint, it fades and usually turns pink.. I watched that happen to my beautiful Austin Healy, all I can think of to repaint.
I’ve had similar problems on two different N26s with navy blue stripes.
I have the vague impression that some chemical or abrasive that was used in cleaning and/or compounding at some point in time interacted badly with the paint.
I’d be curious to hear more opinions on this, because I’d like to know both how to fix it and what to do in avoiding the problem in the future. Tim may well be right, that only repainting will solve it. But, I’m reluctant to act on that until I understand how not to make the same mistakes on a new paint job.
In my experience with a blue stripe, the color is returned by using a dual cleaner/polish, the one by West Marine works well. For quick restoration between polishing, try the 303 Detailer. I had the boat yard professionally polish the hull, including the stripes, when she had her bottom painted, and that lasted over a year.
Bill
Previous NS owner
First off you will have to determine if you are dealing with gelcoat or paint. It is possible you have both. The green might be original factory gelcoat and the red a painted extra that someone applied. The fact that they respond differently suggest they are different.
Once you know what you are dealing with you will be able to chose appropriate methods to get rid of the “weep”/spotting. One step cleaner and wax may do it and I would try that first. If that fails you might try a mild acid cleaner.
I suspect repainting may be the only way to revive the red.
Yesterday I was able to take the “tears” off using some 3M polishing compound and a random orbit Bosch machine. I had suspected that I would have no choice other than painting the red stripe on. It frankly had not occurred to me that it might have been painted on there as an after-market application, but now I notice that it seems to be somewhat proud from the surrounding gelcoat. It had to have been professionally-applied because its width and its edges are so perfect. I can’t imagine duplicating that, so I guess I’m stuck with a mottled pinkish stripe.
