boat polish help

S

starcrafttom

Active member
Hi every one, I have gotten most of the projects done on the boat and now want to buff wax and shine the boat. some of you that have seen it know how bad it looks. The shine was neglected for some time before i got the boat and Susan's big caveat of buying such a old boat was that I get it to shine like the 22. Well last year was all shake down and getting use to the boat. This winter and spring has been about rebuilding and changing things in the boat Now its time to buff.

Hes the problem. 1) I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm run it and gun it and wash it latter kind of guy. I have never spent a warm sunny day washing and waxing a car. that's what car washes are for. 5 mins its done and now I can go fish. 2) at some point in the past the boat was covered with some sort of hard wax or spray on clear coat product. I have no idea what it is. 3) If won't @#$#!@@^#% come the hell off!!!!!!!!!!!!4) it has came off on its own or been scraped off in many places or is yellow where it has not came off and just looks crappy. ( no thats not a fish for those of you in the south)
I have tried using a cutting compound by 3m in a heavy cut with a brand new variable speed heavy buffer/sander 7 inch. this will do it but its a bear. lost of compound and lot and lots of pressure and multiple passes. takes me about 20 minutes to do a 2 foot square section and I really have to use the edge of the buffet to get it done. I have tried a wax and polish remover that Localboy mark gave me and it does not even touch it. 1000 grit sand paper does not ever touch it but 220 of course will. I don't want to sand my whole $#%$ boat. Sorry but I'm tired of this. the only product so far that gets it right off is acetone but you have to wipe it right off or it hardens again. I do not want to acetone the whole boat.

So does anyone know what this stuff is and how to get it off or have the home address for the developer or the lousy sob that put it on my boat?? I spent 4 hours doing just the black strip on one side and I did not finish it yet. Help!
 
Tom - Talk to Fred (Anita Marie). His first CD22 he bought from Don and Deb, who also owned your boat, had a coating of some sort on it, too. He had a heck of time getting it off. I believe he resorted to rubber gloves and MEK. Good luck.
 
Tom, check with Skyline Marine in Anacortes. They were selling a product
that was supposed to put a permanent shine on fiberglass boats. They
would either sell you the product for you to apply of they would do the
whole treatment for you. The directions for applying it were pretty specific and care had to be taken with it. They touted it as the last word in a great
finish that would last and eliminate the routine of waxing. At any rate once on it supposedly stayed. If it's the same product, and it sounds like it could well be, those are the folks I would talk to. If there is a way to get it off, re-do it, or whatever, they should know.

Worth checking out. Good luck on finding a solution. .
 
Tom just a guess but I bet its poly glo which is similar to an acrylic floor wax you can put on fiberglass. It leaves a thick coating that yellows over time and is a bear to get off. Look at the polyglo web site, they sell a remover, or you might try an acrylic floor wax remover.

Eric
 
It sounds like you have Poli-Glow, or something like it. It's an acrylic coating that seals and shines old porous gelcoat. Kind of like Mop-and-glow for boats.

The Poli-Glow comes in a kit with a concentrated cleaner called Poli-Prep that gets diluted 1 to 3 to clean for application, and 1 to 2 for removal of the stuff. They also sell Poli-Strip for stubborn removal.

The guy selling it at the boat show told me that it's a butyl cleaner that has a shelf life of about a year. A lot of the horror stories surrounding the product deal with the difficulty of removal, but I think I would try a fresh batch of the Poli-Strip for a start.

http://www.poliglow-int.com/poliglow.phtml
 
That Poly-whatever sounds like the stuff, Tom. I didn't think the wax/grease remover would touch it, but like I told you, it's worth the try. Seems you may have a bit of work to do. Once it's off, I'd lightly buff it and then put a good quality wax/polish over it to seal the gelcoat; perhaps Collinite.
 
I called skyline/cap sante ( are the combined now) and they have two bottles of the remover that I might go get. long drive for just two bottles. If its a acrylic floor wax repackages for boats will a acrylic floor wax remover get it off or will that harm the fiberglass? I might be able to get that locally.
 
Just talked to the boat yard again and they have the spray on remover but for 14 bucks a can and it does not work very well. when the had to strip a boat they used interlux 202 thinner and a white scrub pad or 400 grit paper with the thinner to get it off. What a crappy product. I'm going to try the floor wax remover unless some one tells me not to.
 
Worth a try in a small area.

3M makes various grits of scrub pads. You can get them @ Wesco. Might work w/ the remover and make it more "effecient".

You're gonna be "buff" w/ some nice shoulders when this is done. :lol:
 
Probably poplyglo. I just put four-five coats on the tomcat. It looks pretty good, nice and shiny. A downsize is that it will embed any dirt that has not been washed off. The solution is to remove the patch where there was dirt. To do this there is a remover that polyglo sells. It works very well and doesn't take much effort. I don't know what's in the stuff (I'm not a the boat right now) but you can order a bottle online. It does say that the remover will also remove bottom paint, so take care there.
 
Tom has experienced the problem with the products like Poly glo. They look great for a peroid of time--you can repeat them but eventually they build up and the UV light discolors them.

The floor wax stripper works. Also a solution of amonia may work. White vineger also is said to remove these acrylic waxes.

Incidently I use them on the top of the RV (where not seen) to stop the "Black streak" which comes from dirt and oils which sit on the gel coat and then run down the sides when it rains.
 
Well I think I have it figured out now. I tried the vinegar but no results there. I went to home depot and bought a bottle of concentrated floor wax remover and blue brillo pads. The blue is not as gritty as the green ones. little softer. I used a spray bottle and applied the remover and immediately scrubbed with the pad until it got a little pasty. Then I let it sit for 5 minutes before scrubbing and then wiping it off and then rinse with water. Seems to take off all or most of it. after I get the whole side done I will buff it out with a cutting compound and then wash and shine the boat. It will be nice to have a good looking boat again.
 
Well its time for a up date. what I described above worked, if you did it 6 time. So long story and long days in the short form I had to hand scrub the boat 6 times total. Then I was able to use a heavy 3m cutting paste to buff out the boat. I did the whole boat twice. then I washed it twice by hand to get the cutting paste and residue polyglo off. Then I applied a wax by hand and used a buffer to get it that shiny shine. that was just the hull below the rub rail. That took two weeks after work and all last weekend, tonight I buffed out the roof and waxed it. Now all I have to do is the deck and the side of the cabin.
 
starcrafttom":1n4c5dnd said:
Well its time for a up date. what I described above worked, if you did it 6 time. So long story and long days in the short form I had to hand scrub the boat 6 times total. Then I was able to use a heavy 3m cutting paste to buff out the boat. I did the whole boat twice. then I washed it twice by hand to get the cutting paste and residue polyglo off. Then I applied a wax by hand and used a buffer to get it that shiny shine. that was just the hull below the rub rail. That took two weeks after work and all last weekend, tonight I buffed out the roof and waxed it. Now all I have to do is the deck and the side of the cabin.
Click to expand...

Tom, I was looking in the online dictionary for the root of the word "selflessness", when I saw the phrase "Self Abuse". There was a picture of a guy polishing a 27 foot C Dory as the definition. The boat looked great, but the guy looked like something the cat drug in.

On the serious side, I bet that boat is a gem now. Congrats on your hard work.
 
I bet it goes faster when you are done. The other thing to watch out for is sliding off the roof. After two coats of Collinite paste and buffing, rain and people slide right off.
 
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