Waxing polishing etc. etc.

[Shark]

My boat is now 17 years old - fresh water only, stored from October to April. Overall the off-white gelcoat is in good shape. Naturally the deck and cabin have lost their shine. The finish on the hull is ok but could be improved. I want to restore the shine as much as possible (reasonable) and am looking for advice. Santa brought me a 10? buffer/polisher to help out.

What is the best rubbing compound to use? It shouldn?t be too aggressive or gummy.

Should I continue to wax the hull using ?boat wax,? with carnuba or use one of the new ?acrylic? or "polymer" polishes? Some people believe waxes ?yellow.? Is that true? I don?t want the hull to be any more ?off white.? What?s the best way to remove the old wax?

How do you keep the cabin and deck, not the non-skid, shiny? Without coating the surface, it scuffs easily and marks badly. Dirt, mildew and bird droppings seem to "weld" themselves to the surface. I?m afraid to wax it for my safety and that of my crew. They wax surfboards don?t they?

Lyman

[Tim]

Funny you should mention this...

Last night, I happened to find myself watching "Shipshape TV" again. Now, I know we've made fun of this bozo before in another thread here, but the host, working on a silly Boston Whaler project, said that it was "critical" to wax the nonskid (!!) with, as he put it, a "marine" wax. The video showed him ostensibly hard at work rubbing wax into the small textured foredeck of the Whaler.

Now, what a dumb idea, and I can't even believe he said it. I can't imagine ever treading upon waxed nonskid...yikes!

But anyway.

The short, unhelpful answer to your question is: use only as aggressive rubbing compound as you need to. Start finer and see if it does the trick; if not, try the next step up. (Ideally)

I don't know much about waxing, etc. When I had boats with gelcoat surfaces, I used to polish a couple times a year to remove chalkiness and oxidation, but rarely used wax. I always liked the basic Star-Brite marine polish, but there are probably better products available that someone might have used more recently.

I think carnauba is good, but might be harder to buff out. True car buffs (pun not intended) choose this, it seems. UV rays and sun damage are the same wherever you go--it's just that on the water, with the added reflection and constant exposure to water, etc., the protection lasts less long. But with the short northern season, one wax job each spring would be more than sufficient.

I think the high-tech polymer junk (light a fire on the surface!!) is less useful and doesn't truly protect the surface. I don't know if true waxes yellow or not, but any high-end product favored by car enthusiasts would, I think, have to be good. But you have to polish first to restore the shine. Either automotive products or the off-the-shelf ones at the marine store would be fine for gelcoat. Many of them work very well--just be careful of burning the gelcoat with your buffer. I bet Dave has some thoughts on all this. The brown 3M rubbing compoind and Finesse-It are a good system also, but I don't know if they are aggressive enough for chalked and dirty gelcoat.

Whatever you do, don't get sucked into the advice some boatyard neighbor is sure to give you--to use one of these insta-gloss-type fiberglass "restorers" or whatver. All these do is lay down a glossy layer of some gunk that will definitely and catastrophically yellow, crack, peel, and fail.

You should get good results with traditional rubbing compounds and polishes. You can also wetsand the gelcoat if the surface is really dull, but only if you are confident you have sufficient thickess of the gelcoat.

[Figment]

Last night, I happened to find myself watching "Shipshape TV" again. Now, I know we've made fun of this bozo before in another thread here, but the host, working on a silly Boston Whaler project, said that it was "critical" to wax the nonskid (!!) with, as he put it, a "marine" wax.

Yeah, and the prudent mariner is always sure to slather some vaseline onto the soles of their boat shoes too, John!!

On a more serious note..... In my experience (Well, really my father's experience. He's the wax-nut of the family. Waxing a 36' sportfisherman 3x a year, he's gone through a LOT of wax) the automotive products are really not that great in marine applications. Most "car buffs" don't allow their babies to be exposed to that much sunlight, and SALT?!!?! them's fightin' words!! Car buffs also reapply with far greater frequency than any boater is likely to.

The rule used to be "if you can lift your arms the day after you've waxed your boat, you need to go back and do it again", but that just doesn't apply these days with the advent of these non-paste products. Chemical technology has come a long way, I guess. The best products (3m "FinesseIt" and the like) buff off as easily as they wipe on, and are worth every friggin nickel of their seemingly outrageous price. Just don't drop the bottle overboard.

But that's only for the topsides. Never on deck. My hunch is that once you do the rubbing compound thing on your decks to remove the chalkyness (porosity), the bird droppings won't cling so tenaciously. There shouldn't be any need to wax anything on deck. As for keeping decks and nonskid "shiny".... repaint frequently?? I dunno. To me, a "beautiful boat" is one that gets to go sailing, and a boat that sails is going to have a few dull spots on deck.

Removal of old wax.... usually the sunlight takes care of that. Rubbing compound will remove what remains in short order.

waxing surfboards.... entirely different kind of waxing altogether. apples and oranges.

[Shark]

Thanks for the feedback guys. You pretty much confirmed what I already knew and am doing. It's good to know that I'm on the right track but it never hurts to ask because "better mouse traps" do get invented sometimes.

Sailing vs cleaning - no contest. I spent a lot more time daysailing and racing the boat last season than I did cleaning it!!

Thanks again.
Lyman