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Gloss clear coat on skis

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Hi all,

I’m hoping someone on here can help me with something i’m hugely kicking myself over! I don’t know what I was thinking but I decided to wet and dry the top sheet of my skis to bring back the gloss shine of the clear coat. I don’t know why I did such a stupid thing when the scratches didn’t even bother me in the first place but it had worked on some alloy wheels before so I figured it would work on my skis too. I’m really angry with myself but it turned out to be a complete disaster. Sadly I’ve ruined the appearance of my skis. The gloss finish has gone, and they’re left with a milky dull appearance. In short I’ve removed all the factory lacquer. I’ve tried polishing them with a machine polisher but no effect. I thought I’d resolved the issue by reapplying an acrylic lacquer which once polished looked great only to find the lacquer flaked off with a light touch of a coin.

I’ve spoken a mate who runs a garage and he thinks he has a contact who can reapply a clear coat but I’m not sure what sort of lacquer to advise him to apply. Obviously it needs to be durable to temperature and moisture, slightly flexible and not flake off. Would the lacquer that’s used on car bumpers work?

Any help welcome! Embarassed Sad
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Good excuse for new skis?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
ulmerhutte wrote:
Good excuse for new skis?
that’s what hurts the most... they’re pretty new anyway, only on their second season. Crying or Very sad
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If you enjoy the way they ski who cares what they look like?
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Stickers, lots of stickers.
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Usually to get back a smooth surface you'd take it finer and finer with wet OR dry and used wet with hand soap to prevent it clogging the paper / grit.

800 grit should take out any deep marks. Then successively 1000/1200 grit to refine, then higher number if you can get it.

Youre then into T-Cut territory to polish it.

Your mates with garage would ordinarily know a bit about this to help you.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
dredgey, It might be worth talking to your mate about UV lacquer used on headlights.

There are headlight restoration kits out there and the advice is to sand off the old and reapply the new.
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Quote:

If you enjoy the way they ski who cares what they look like?

This. And they'll be less likely to get nicked, should you ever have a chance to use them again.
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You didn't try the same treatment on the bases....?
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@dredgey, we always suggest one of three methods:

- live with it
- fix it
- use time travel to go back and not do it in the first place

Usually this is advice preceding enormous effort to remove seat posts which have been installed in bike frames without grease.

OK - it entirely depends on which skis you have. Many skis are not lacquered at all. Without lacquer the gloss comes from the final set of the gel coat or epoxy which glues everything together. So you may be doing something which is not appropriate to your skis. We need to know which skis they are and get a photo up. The answer may be polishing in the manner outlines above. It most likely will never be the same, but can get better. If you stick the wrong lacquer on, you could set up a horrible solvent reaction between the structure of the ski and the lacquer and end up with a sticky mess and no skis at all. But what are they and put up a photo of what they look like. Don't worry about feeling silly, we've all been there with acute brain fade. Like the time I shouted 'pull on the red rope' and it was the blue rope which got pulled, with the inevitable hang-up 25 metres above us. Grrrrrr. Or whilst DH-ing 'I mustn't hit that hole...' DONK!
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You can get jewellery polishing cloths down to 12000 grit. I've used them on knive making projects.

The thin clear coat sealing epoxies may work but I haven't seen and flexible options. Anyhow, my new Nordica Enforcer 104s have a slightly textured matt topsheet, it looks really good.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
enjoy cool new matt finish skies, the more you sand and polish the more factory finish you will lose.
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valais2 wrote:
@dredgey, we always suggest one of three methods:

- live with it
- fix it
- use time travel to go back and not do it in the first place

Usually this is advice preceding enormous effort to remove seat posts which have been installed in bike frames without grease.

OK - it entirely depends on which skis you have. Many skis are not lacquered at all. Without lacquer the gloss comes from the final set of the gel coat or epoxy which glues everything together. So you may be doing something which is not appropriate to your skis. We need to know which skis they are and get a photo up. The answer may be polishing in the manner outlines above. It most likely will never be the same, but can get better. If you stick the wrong lacquer on, you could set up a horrible solvent reaction between the structure of the ski and the lacquer and end up with a sticky mess and no skis at all. But what are they and put up a photo of what they look like. Don't worry about feeling silly, we've all been there with acute brain fade. Like the time I shouted 'pull on the red rope' and it was the blue rope which got pulled, with the inevitable hang-up 25 metres above us. Grrrrrr. Or whilst DH-ing 'I mustn't hit that hole...' DONK!


Thank you for all the replies. The skis are Black Crows Captis https://www.evo.com/outlet/skis/black-crows-captis-2018 . The guy I'm talking to has seen pictures of my skis and is confident that he can make them good again with either lacquer or a ceramic coating. Both of which he is confident that they will be flexible enough and resistant to moisture, UV, and a fair bit of knocking about.

Still really kicking myself.


Last edited by So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much on Thu 19-03-20 7:35; edited 2 times in total
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@dredgey, before you do anything at all, have you ever seen how much a ski actually bends? I watched the Grom go over a mogul field and could not believe how much his skis were flexing. I am pretty sure from all my days grinding off colour on competition cars and then repainting and refinishing them, that no regular lacquer coat is going to be flexible enough to deal with that. Black Crows? You are a hard man. Live with the dullness?
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valais2 wrote:
@dredgey, before you do anything at all, have you ever seen how much a ski actually bends? I watched the Grom go over a mogul field and could not believe how much his skis were flexing. I am pretty sure from all my days grinding off colour on competition cars and then repainting and refinishing them, that no regular lacquer coat is going to be flexible enough to deal with that. Black Crows? You are a hard man. Live with the dullness?


I know what you mean, the flexibility of a lacquer must have its limitations. I'm really in two minds as to what to do... Arrrgh so angry at myself!
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Crows always look cool being battered a bit. My 5 year old Bents have so many flexible epoxy repeairs to chips out of the topsheet edge.
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Scarpa wrote:
Crows always look cool being battered a bit. My 5 year old Bents have so many flexible epoxy repeairs to chips out of the topsheet edge.


Agreed skis that have been 'used' look fine. Mine however don't look used, just b*gg***d up.

I've just briefly spoken with Black Crows who say the top sheet is just plastic. I'm wondering if the damage I've caused can simply be polished out by someone who knows what they're doing....
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Accept your skis are fooked and probably leaching dangerous chemicals. Post them to me and I'll ensure they are disposed of safely.
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What was that product that stops snow sticking ...it stops any liquid spills like magic ...everything just runs off ?

Otherwise plastic bumper paint although as said it may not flex enough .
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Dave of the Marmottes wrote:
Accept your skis are fooked and probably leaching dangerous chemicals. Post them to me and I'll ensure they are disposed of safely.


Fair do's, based on black Crows telling me its just a plastic top layer, my garage mate is going to see if he can polish them like you would with duff plastic headlamps and if not I'll send them your way.


Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Wed 18-03-20 23:20; edited 1 time in total
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@dredgey, what would you have had that been the original design? Not bought them?

I think you are being ever such a teeny weeny bit precious.
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under a new name wrote:
@dredgey, what would you have had that been the original design? Not bought them?

I think you are being ever such a teeny weeny bit precious.


Fair point. I know the appearance really doesn’t matter. And if the skis were battered through use I wouldn’t even be thinking about it. I suppose because I know that through some moment of madness some idiot attacking them with sandpaper has made them go from looking nearly new to 10 years old I’m just desperate to undo the mistake.
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Just ski powder Toofy Grin
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It matters imo if alot of snow sticks to the top sheet .
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I bought my son a pair of pink ladies skies for his first telemark skies - he was less than impressed so we vinyl wrapped then, they look very cool and the wrap was surprisingly durable.
I’ve never seen a need to sand or polish a ski but hay ho each to their own.
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Ok, mountain out of a mole hill over. Once I found out that the top of the ski was just plastic and not any kind of applied finish, I went sh*t or bust with a car mop which I borrowed from a mate. They’re now starting to look like skis with normal scratches rather than something that looked like it had been dipped in acid. I’ll carry on tomorrow but they’re 75% there.

Lessons learnt; 1. don’t try and muck about with something when you don’t know what you’re bloody well doing. 2. What works to refurbish an alloy wheel doesn’t work on a ski. 3. Leave your skis the hell alone.

Thanks for all the replies and for not taking the pi** too much. Slightly embarrassed! Embarassed
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
This thread is pointless without pics!
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@dredgey, S-jon's right ...any chance of some pictures of prurience? Really interested to see what you did and how you rescued it. Personally I think it's great that you posted here, good that the advice helped, and good that it helped avoid a further catastrophe - i.e. trying to spray lacquer on. Glad you are 75% there and maybe 90 by the time you've got down to the really fine polishing mops....
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Happy to post pics, just trying to work out how.... bare with.... bare with...
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@dredgey, most structures that are made like these have a thick clear coat of polyester resin applied to the mould as a first step, the rest of the ski components are effectively bonded to that outside surface as the ski is constructed.

It's normally going to be closely comparative to the polycarbonate used for car headlight lenses, so appropriate to follow the methods for those.

They use a "lacquer" to finish them in order to protect the material from UV degradation afterwards which isn't needed for the skis.
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Poster: A snowHead
Before. Sorry don’t have a photo of the entire ski but they looked like this at the front and tails

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"..Personally I think it's great that you posted here.." Me too, better than reading about Armageddon...

(I know it is 'cheeky' - but thought a bigger picture might help..)


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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Now:

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albob wrote:
"..Personally I think it's great that you posted here.." Me too, better than reading about Armageddon...

(I know it is 'cheeky' - but thought a bigger picture might help..)




Thanks, my ability to post pics here is about the same as my ability to work on skis! Feel free the enlarge the others!!
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Big Difference !!


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spyderjon wrote:
This thread is pointless without pics!


Not now it isn't !! Smile
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albob wrote:
Big Difference !!




Yep, very much relieved.

Genuinely thankful for the supportive comments here! Whilst I appreciate appearance doesn’t matter, this was just idiotic!
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I kinda liked the rat rod look.
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