I have just bought a 26' clark, but it needs a good cleaning. I want to clean and I guess polish the outside. What do I wash it with, and then i guess shine it up with? What product?
New Boat Owner
- Thread starter lingarner
- Start date
- Status
This is a quote from a guy who's done this a time or two. Maine Sail-I too have tried "miracle coatings" and unless you are happy with a half baked job, which most sailors are, than I don't advise these products. For instance if your boat is kept on a mooring, where the mooring ball rubs the side of the hull in calm weather, the finish will wear through quickly! If you want to do it the right way with REAL results and not a fake "claer coat like" finish then the only way is the hard way. Read below... Use these products & steps for gelcoat finishes. These instructions DO NOT apply to AwlGrip! 1)Wet Sand by hand (only if needed) starting with 600 then 1000 remember this is only if the boat is severely oxidized other wise start below. 2)3M Marine Superduty Rubbing Compound (use a wool 3M super buff COMPOUND grade pad) 3)3M Finesse It (Use a wool 3M super buff POLISH grade pad) 4)Meguiars #9 Swirl Remover (professional grade automotive product tan bottle - Buff with a 3M #05725 Perfect It foam polish pad. 5) Collinite #885 Fleet Wax - paste version The rest of the process: You'll need a few items first. A good Buffer not one of the cheapies. I use a Makita model 9227C with a thumb dial for speed control and the difference between it and my old Craftsman is like night and day! Cheap buffers are just that cheap buffers! Second you will need two or three grades of the 3M wool Superbuff pads and the foam pads referenced above. Use a heavy for compounding, a medium for the polishing stage and a fine for the glazing stage. I use a 3M professional grade foam pad for the polish/glaze stage as well part #05725. It's very important to match the aggressiveness of the pad to the phase of the buffing. Very important!! Contrary to popular belief there is no such thing as a one step solution for wet sanding/compounding/polishing and waxing a fiberglass hull. The saying "you get what you pay for" is true and a $10.00 bottle of "one step" cleaner wax does not cut it if you want your boat looking Bristol condition like it just rolled out of the Hinckley barn. Unless you're pinched by time and are satisfied with a half baked job, and most boat owners will be, you should stop reading here... To do it right you must first remove all the oxidation either by wet sanding, starting with 600 grit (but be very cautious) and working up to 1000, 1200 or 1600. Wet sanding should always be done by hand unless you're a seasoned body shop professional. If the oxidation is minimal a good heavy duty rubbing compound, such as 3M heavy duty, and a compounding grade wool pad can be the starting point. After the compounding phase is complete you move to a lighter weight wool pad and a true polish, not a compound or a wax but a polish like 3M's Finesse It. The polishing phase is perhaps the most important because it gives that deep wet look to the hull even before you wax it. Skipping the polishing phase and using a compound only will leave very small, barely visible, scratches in the gel coat that will absorb more UV light, due to more exposed surface area, and thus oxidize the hull more rapidly. This is why you must polish the hull as the second phase or third phase depending on your level of oxidation. So phase 1 is wet sand (if needed), phase 2 compound, phase three polish. You should not be dependent on the wax for the shine of your hull. This is a big myth propagated by companies trying to make "one step" finishes to cater to the un-initiated or un-educated boater or car owner for that matter. The wax is a protectant only and a final sealer nothing more and nothing less! Unfortunately most people actually skip the polishing step thinking compounding is polishing. It's NOT! Once my hull is polished I do a fourth phase called glazing step and then two coats about three days apart of Collinite Fleet Wax. Wax takes a while too fully harden and this is why I do it two days apart. Most often one coat will suffice but for a really long lasting finish two coats is best (I do three at the waterline). The glazing step would be considered over kill by many but this is the step where you literally make the hull surface like glass by using products like Meguiars #9 Swirl Remover or #7 Show Car Glaze. I find Meguiars "professional line" in the tan bottles far better than their marine line in the blue bottles. Just because something says marine it may just be an over priced cheap automotive product in a marine bottle. If you were to rate products on a scale of grit wet sanding would be a 10 or most aggressive, compounding with a heavy duty compound would be a 7, Finesse It a 4.5-5, #9 or Show Car Glaze a 2-3 and wax a Zero. So you can see why you can't just jump from Finesse It to a wax or compound to a wax. It still has a lot of grit in it and will leave swirl marks to absorb UV rays. Don't be fooled by the "easy application liquid waxes" I've yet to find one that lasts and I've tried them all! Trust me I did this for a living when I was younger and no one wants to wax a mega yacht every three months! I used to detail "shiny boats" (mega yachts) and found Collinite to be the longest lasting and hardest of the Carnuba's. One way to test if your wax will pass the test of time is to watch your waterline. If it becomes yellow the wax is dead and gone! With Colinite, applied correctly, I can get 8 full months without any yellowing at the waterline. No other wax has even come close except for a product called Tre-Wax which is another carnuba based wax. When buffing/waxing a boat, out of the water, a good trick is to cover the bottom paint with at least 2" blue tape so you don't "buff and wax the paint". It's important to tape neatly so you get wax as close to the bottom paint as you can without actually getting it on the paint. I usually do a 3/4-inch width tape followed by a 2-inch width giving me plenty of tape to save my buffing pads. Fouling of your buffing pad with bottom paint is the end of that pad until you can wash it in a commercial washing machine! Don't do it! To keep "sling", what happens when you use a rotary buffer, and it throws white dots of compound up onto your deck, off the decks, I bring old card board boxes to the boat yard. Lay them on the deck directly above the area you're working protruding about 12" over the edge of the deck and the cardboard will catch any "sling" on the way up. Buffing and waxing a boat the right way takes time and is a commitment. I plan on about 7 hours each spring and I'm only doing a three step polish/glaze/wax at this point (glaze is an ultrafine polish like Meguiar's #9 or Show Car Glaze). Once you get caught up it's only a two or three step but the first season may take up to 25 hours if your hull is heavily oxidized. Remember, when done right this is the equivalent process and end result of a new paint job! An AwlGrip job on a 30 footer runs about 6K these days! I know most sailors will never spend the time but it pays off big time. After selling five boats the longest time on the market was three weeks! The last boat I sold was a Catalina 36. It sold in three weeks at the highest price for its vintage on Yachtworld! The condition of a boat is the driving factor in most sales! OK some more tips. Tips for keeping it clean after you've reconditioned it: 1) With two coats of a Colinite paste carnuba on the hull I only wash the boat with IMAR brand boat wash! This stuff is great and it's safe for washing Strattaglass dodger windows too. The reason I use it is because it's the only product I've found that cleans but does not break down the wax. I'm still beading after 7 months! Do NOT use a soap with a built in wax or one that's a heavy detergent or you will eat away and ruin your protective wax barrier. You can order IMAR products from Defender or directly from the IMAR web site, although, Defender is cheaper. Using this soap and a very soft car wash brush on a stick works well and does not ruin your wax. Tips for "yellow" looking hulls: 2) Before waxing/buffing: If your hull is old and dirty buy a cheap rain suit, duck tape, rubber gloves and some ON/OFF (basically acid). Duck tape around your wrists so you don't get acid on you while reaching over head to wash the boat. Wait until a nice rainy day and wash the entire hull with ON/OFF. Buy a roll of plastic and rip it with a razor knife into 12-inch wide lengths. Tape this to the water line with 3M green tape (seems to work) at the top but let it hang on the bottom as a drip edge skirt. You do this so the ON/OFF does not eat the copper bottom paint and can drip on the ground vs. the bottom. Wash and rinse quickly a small area at a time and do this preferably before you before you bottom paint just in case. On/Off is basically FSR without the gel. However you can wash much faster with ON/OFF than you can with FSR. The ON/OFF will bring back the white of the hull by removing the metals or tannins (that rusty orange discoloration you get) that attach to the gel coat from the ocean. Maine has lots of metals in the water and ON/OFF is an acid that will eat it. You'll be amazed at the difference in the color of your hull. This is a good place to start before waxing if your boat is older than a few years. Be careful not to get On/Off or FSR on aluminum rub rails, cleats etc. because it will pit them. You could also use FSR but it will take a full day to do it right vs. 1/2 hour for the skirt set up and 1/2 hour washing. Tips for applying the wax: 3) Do I apply the wax by hand? Yes! DO NOT apply or remove the wax phase with the buffer! I use the 4-inch round Meguiars foam applicators you can buy at an auto parts store and a spray/mist bottle of water, like you use for ironing. The spray bottle is the secret trick for applying a true Carnuba wax. Simply mist the hull and liberally apply the wax. Wait for it to dry and buff by hand with a Micro Fiber rag. Do not use terry cloth! Once you use a Micro Fiber detailing cloth for waxing you'll wonder how you ever survived without one! The spray of water some how helps it attach and buff out to a harder, shinier easier to wipe off finish. It's sort of like when you get your shoes polished and the guy hits them with a mist bottle and then buffs the shine up. I don't think this trick works with the polymer/Carnuba blends like the 3M paste but it's like gold with the Collinite Carnuba as well as Tre-Wax. Another trick is not to wax a large area! Do a three foot wide swath from toe rail to waterline marking where your are waxing at the toe rail with a piece of blue tape. Also leave a little residue on the leading edge so you'll know exactly where to start. You'll wipe this leading edge when finished with the next swath leaving another leading edge to go off of. I have tried using my buffer to remove the wax but the friction heat is bad for it and it does not shine as well or last as long! Buffing it off by hand gives it a harder shell because it's cooler and does not re-melt the curing wax. Have plenty of fresh Micro Fiber rags for the wipe off! On my 31 footer I use only four Micro's where it used to take about a dozen terry cloth rags. I buy my Micro Fiber rags at Sam's Club or Wal*Mart. Try and find the best quality Micro*Fiber you can it WILL make a difference. Sometimes the quality of the Sam's Club Micro's is poor so I go to Wally World. You want the ones that sell individually or three to a pack not the 12 to a pack rags as the quality is bad on the big multi packs! I think you get 3 for between 6 to 8 dollars. Most all auto parts stores also sell Micro Fiber detailing rags! Tips for decks: 4) I buff the smooth and the non-skid. I use Collinite there as well and it does not seem to make my decks slippery like a Teflon or polymer wax does. You could also tape off the non-skid and buff the white only letting the non-skid flatten out. I did this on one boat and it looked great! I hope this info helps and is useful to some. If you do it be prepared to commit the time and increase the value of your boat as well!!!! Trust me it pays back. I've never sold any boat I've owned for less than I paid for it including the fact that I pay a 10% commission... The picture does not do it justice but look at the reflection in the gel-coat and the detail in the reflection. Less distortion in the reflection shows a very good polish/glaze with virtually no swirl marks. Picture: http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/image/67210439 More info on pads, compounds and rags: Here is link to a photo showing some of the products I use: http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/image/73006836 As maintaining the buffing pads I wash them alone on COLD with regular detergent in a home washing machine. Sometimes it may take two cycles to get them clean. DO NOT dry them in a dryer and don't wash them on hot they are wool and a hot wash or dry will literally change the pad grade. A polish grade pad can become a compound pad fairly quickly so wash cold then air dry. I rarely have to clean a pad, during a buffing project, unless I'm doing a friends boat that is badly oxidized. Use slow speeds and light pressure to prevent compound burning. You can also use a mist bottle of water, very sparingly, to give a little moisture to the hull and lube the pad. This however will create more sling so you’re best to go slow and keep the compound wet. The secret is to keep the pad "wet" if it dries, it burns, and you'll need a "spur wheel" or spigot wash to field clean it. Spurs are available at an autobody supply shop or auto parts store. Another trick I use for a field clean is to remove the pad from the buffer and rinse it under a boatyard spigot scrubbing it with my fingers till it's clean. I then re-install the pad on the buffer and spin it on the buffers highest speed inside a 5-gallon bucket to catch the sling. Spin it until no more water spins off on the inside of the bucket. Once done with that use a towel to get it as close to dry as possible. This is the method I use as I feel it's more thorough than a spur. A word of caution about "cheap" compounds and polishes is that they may contain silicone or wax or oils, which will not come, clean of the pads and will eventually ruin them. Use 3M products or Meguiars but carefully read the labels to make sure it says, "does not contain silicone". Many of the cheap products from both 3M and Meguiars contain silicone. Finesse It does not contain any silicone but be sure to read all labels. The cheap compounds use silicones because it adds lubricity to the wheel/pad, for novice users, but a low speed and a light touch will get you a lot further than a polishing/compounding product containing waxes or silicones. Compounding and polishing is just that compounding and polishing not compound and wax or polish and wax at the same time. Think of a compound or polish as a very, very, very fine grit liquid sandpaper. As you know wet sandpaper contains no silicones or "essential oils" so neither should a compound or polish. Products containing silicones or "essential oils" give you a false sense of shine. This forces you to stop polishing well before you have actually finished shining. The hull should be perfectly shiny before the wax goes on but not shiny from silicone or oils. These additives wash off quickly and also prevent the Carnuba wax from binding properly to the hull. If a product says "paintable" it does not contain silicone! As for the microfiber rags do NOT use any sort of fabric softener it will ruin the rags and also do not dry them in a dryer. You can wash them on warm or hot though... Keep me in the loop!! Products I use containing NO SILICONE: 3M Marine Super Rubbing Compound 3M Finesse It - Polish Meguiars #9 Swirl Remover - Fine Polish (in the tan bottle pro-series not marine grade in the blue bottle) Meguiars #7 Show Car Glaze - Ultra fine Polish also pro-grade in a tan bottle. Collinite #885 Fleet Wax - Paste Version
Last edited:
Good ole gelcoat
Ah yes, the Clark Boat Company, Kent, Washington. We see a lot of those old San Juan (usually 21's or 24's, I've not heard of the 26) around the Pacific Northwest. I suspect that they have nice thick gelcoat and would benefit from the approach described previously.
(BTW - it looks like the text has lost its formatting) If the boat has never been painted, there is a nice new shiney finish waiting just a few mills beneath the oxidized surface.
For myself, I used McGuires #44, followed by Finesset II, followed by wax. That's sort of the gold standard on the Boston Whaler forum. But generally, start coarser for more oxidized hulls, and step through finer materials, and try not to skip too many steps.
Its worth it to tackle this right away when your boat is new to you and you have the energy to do this. Its a time value thing - do it early and enjoy the results.
Ah yes, the Clark Boat Company, Kent, Washington. We see a lot of those old San Juan (usually 21's or 24's, I've not heard of the 26) around the Pacific Northwest. I suspect that they have nice thick gelcoat and would benefit from the approach described previously.
(BTW - it looks like the text has lost its formatting) If the boat has never been painted, there is a nice new shiney finish waiting just a few mills beneath the oxidized surface.
For myself, I used McGuires #44, followed by Finesset II, followed by wax. That's sort of the gold standard on the Boston Whaler forum. But generally, start coarser for more oxidized hulls, and step through finer materials, and try not to skip too many steps.
Its worth it to tackle this right away when your boat is new to you and you have the energy to do this. Its a time value thing - do it early and enjoy the results.
Man, I use a cup of bleach to 3 gallons of water in a pump bottle. Then some carwash soap and get at it. After that once a year I wipe the HULL (ONLY) with 8 to 10 coats of PoliGlow!
http://www.poliglow.net/?source=goog&kw=poliglow&gclid=CI3m573r35gCFQ8gDQod5w18cQ
I've been using it for 8 years now and PEOPLE still can't get over the shine!!!!
http://www.poliglow.net/?source=goog&kw=poliglow&gclid=CI3m573r35gCFQ8gDQod5w18cQ
I've been using it for 8 years now and PEOPLE still can't get over the shine!!!!
Attachments
Polishing Imron(current boat):
Poliglow(previous boat):
Poliglow is definitely the faster, less work intensive way to shine a boat. I am a big fan. It does not hold up well to fenders and rough weather. You also need to do a lot of cleaning because it just seals in what is already there. The owner of my previous boat continues to use it(from my directions) and she still looks great.
I have been polishing all the places on my current boat above the gunwale. It is a lot of hard work but very much worth the result. Poliglow can be difficult to use anywhere but the topsides.
Poliglow(previous boat):
Poliglow is definitely the faster, less work intensive way to shine a boat. I am a big fan. It does not hold up well to fenders and rough weather. You also need to do a lot of cleaning because it just seals in what is already there. The owner of my previous boat continues to use it(from my directions) and she still looks great.
I have been polishing all the places on my current boat above the gunwale. It is a lot of hard work but very much worth the result. Poliglow can be difficult to use anywhere but the topsides.
The boat is in the water now, so i am just concerned with topside so far. It doesnt look too bad, just hasnt been washed in a while. I really want to make the topside shine.
- Status