Surface Preparation

All surfaces to which a fresh coating is to be applied must be thoroughly cleaned beforehand. In particular dirt, oil, grease, wax, silicon, stripper or similar material must be thoroughly removed before commencement of sanding. Failure to do this will result in a spreading of the surface contaminants across the whole surface area through sanding dust. This applies equally to first coatings or repeats coatings. Use special cleaner, warm water and a brush, or a “scotchbrite” sponge. It can be seen when the surface has been thoroughly cleaned as the water will run from the surface smoothly, without forming droplets.

In order to ensure optimal bonding of the new coating the surface should be well sanded, so that it appears uniformly dull. There are four different techniques you can follow:

Dry Sanding, using common abrasive paper found in all hardware stores. Simple to use with only disadvantage the fact they produce a lot of dust, dust that must be avoided or thoroughly removed before it spreads out over the surface. Use mask and/or protective eye-gear
Wet Sanding, using wet abrasive paper. This particular technique is far more effective than dry sanding because when the abrasive paper is wet it creates no dust and provided it is kept sufficiently wet it maintains its abrasiveness for longer thus making it a more economical solution.
Mechanical sanding, either with abrasive belt or disc. Very similar to dry sanding with the difference that due to the equipment used special care needs to be taken when operating such machinery.
Sandblasting, a very effective method mostly used by professionals in yacht yards that have the necessary equipment.