Gelcoat. Ok, here we go: Your boat is looking mighty dull, you look out on the web and see all types of advice and products and don't know where to turn. Well, first off, if it looks like a miracle one step, super easy product: stay away! Do not use! If it looks too good to be true, it is! There are many "one step" products out there. Some, offered by 3M and Meguiars, among others, are ok if your gelcoat is just a little dull and regular wax isn't quite bringing it up to a high shine. Other products, especially the liquid, "wipe on - wipe off" stuff are what you need to stay away from. If applied properly they can look ok, for a month or two, but.........they are essentially a secondary coating (read "clear coat") that you are applying over the gelcoat to produce a shiny finish. If not applied properly the result will be an immediate or slowly apparent milky haze that will look terrible! Even with a perfect application these products do not hold up and will tend to haze if not over the whole surface then in patches which looks even worse. The manufacturers then instruct you to apply further coats every season to maintain the shine but these coats just seal in any hazing, tend to haze themselves and simply build up layers of undesirable product over the gelcoat. When you finally get tired of the haze and want to shine the gelcoat properly, these products are really difficult to strip off and you cannot simply wax over them. They will end up costing you more money and time in the long run.
The tried and true methods are best. For boats that are only lightly oxidized either 3M's or Meguiar's "one step" products are ok, however they use a chemical process to achieve a shine, not any sort of compound (light abrasive). This may result in only being able to achieve a semi-gloss satin finish on the most UV exposed areas. This is because they are not capable of removing the "dead" or oxidized outermost layer of gelcoat. If a boat is more heavily oxidized, especially if I can get a gelcoat colored residue on my hand after wiping the gelcoat, then before any waxing you must remove that dead layer of gelcoat. I usually start by washing the boat using a 3 to 1 mixture of simple household ammonia and water with a little dish soap. This will get any loose oxidation off the surface and sometimes it's amazing just how much this step alone will improve the appearance of the boat. This mixture WILL STRIP WAX off so try to limit you run off to affected areas.{ For those of you who don't know, you should normally NEVER wash your boat (or car for that matter) with dish soap because it does wash off the wax. I usually use Turtle Wax soap (yes, car stuff) as this helps keep boatwax in good condition.}After the wash try a little of the 3M or Meguiars mentioned above on one of the worst areas. If it shines up then great, wax the boat. Once done then make sure go over the boat again with a coat of pure wax, something with UV inhibitors for a lasting shine. The one step products by themselves do not apply a thick enough coat of wax to do the job alone. If you re-coat every 3 to 4 months you should be able to use a regular wax product and it will be an easy wax on - wax off mission. If you are still not getting a high shine then read the next post and I will detail some more aggressive methods.........................
To be continued........................
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