Poly Glow experience
- Thread starter njlarry
- Start date
If you do a search on this forum (upper right next to Login) you'll find lots of discussions. People love it or hate it, but it does have lots of issues you should investigate.
Don, he may not be aware of MS's great writeup and may come across it n his search on poly glow.
http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=117266
http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=117266
By newer, I meant gel coat that would show scratches from the white scotch pad used to prep the hull for the poly glow.
I guess you are saying that poly glow is not for non dulled gel coats which makes sense. My concern is that the scotch pad would leave marks after the poly glow was removed/
I guess you are saying that poly glow is not for non dulled gel coats which makes sense. My concern is that the scotch pad would leave marks after the poly glow was removed/
Maine Sails post was excellent. I use 3-M restorer then finesse followed by Collenite 928? every year on my runabout but wonder how long the gel coat will hold up to that much polishing that removes a little every year on the faded areas. The non faded areas just get the Collenite.
My new to me '84 O'Day is a different story.
My new to me '84 O'Day is a different story.
The polyglow kit comes with a liquid cleaner concentrate that works well and a powder similar to "barkeepers friend" for cleaning stains and marks. The white pad used for cleaning is not as abrasive as the green scotch pads, I've used it with the liquid concenetrate before applying the poly glo.
Nothing looks as good or deep as compunding, polishing and waxing, and I'm sure some folks love the zen of rubbing the hull each season. For me the poly glo looks good, holds up for the season and lets me get the boat in the water sooner so I can go sailing.
poly glo
I know there are people who swear by it, but personally I am swearing AT it. I inherited a Poly Glo job by the PO, a friend. When new, everyone in the marina was oooohing and ahhhhhhing the lovely shine. Now a few years later, after weather and sun, it has cracked , upbraided and yellowed terribly. My intention is to remove it, clean the hull with Colonite 920 and wax with Colonite 855 paste wax. The cleaner that Poly Glo sells will clean your virgin hull before application, but will not remove it. After a number of suggestions and home brews I found that the only recourse was to buy Poly Glo REMOVER, which is a bit pricey, but works. I tested it on the transom but winter descended so I didn't get a chance to finish it. I did find that the advertising is misleading. It leads one to believe that a can will do a 25' boat and it's sold in a 2-pack so that should do my 27' with some spare---wrong! You don't know until you receive it that it takes BOTH cans to do 25'. You must have a fresh water supply to rinse immediately and I'm a bit concerned with what the run-off will do to my VC-17 bottom paint. If it ever gets above zero here in the Mid West I'll find out.
One man's opinion!
I know there are people who swear by it, but personally I am swearing AT it. I inherited a Poly Glo job by the PO, a friend. When new, everyone in the marina was oooohing and ahhhhhhing the lovely shine. Now a few years later, after weather and sun, it has cracked , upbraided and yellowed terribly. My intention is to remove it, clean the hull with Colonite 920 and wax with Colonite 855 paste wax. The cleaner that Poly Glo sells will clean your virgin hull before application, but will not remove it. After a number of suggestions and home brews I found that the only recourse was to buy Poly Glo REMOVER, which is a bit pricey, but works. I tested it on the transom but winter descended so I didn't get a chance to finish it. I did find that the advertising is misleading. It leads one to believe that a can will do a 25' boat and it's sold in a 2-pack so that should do my 27' with some spare---wrong! You don't know until you receive it that it takes BOTH cans to do 25'. You must have a fresh water supply to rinse immediately and I'm a bit concerned with what the run-off will do to my VC-17 bottom paint. If it ever gets above zero here in the Mid West I'll find out.
One man's opinion!
I am not a fan of Polyglow...we put it on our grey LE and it never looked the same...two years ago we decided to remove it and used a commercial wax remover we purchased at a janitorial supply store. It worked great and thankfully, made short work of the removal.
Now we are hiring an auto detail shop to come out to our lake and wax and polish (or visa versa) . It will run approx. $ 250.00 dollars but is the best 250 we spend. It may be more this year as we need to do the cabin sides this time....I agree there are many people who really like polyglow....we fouled up the year we did it by using a cleaner on the deck a couple of weeks later that removed the polyglow in vertical streaks....big mistake....we later discovered dreft or ivory snow cleans the deck but does not remove the polyglow..Patrick
Now we are hiring an auto detail shop to come out to our lake and wax and polish (or visa versa) . It will run approx. $ 250.00 dollars but is the best 250 we spend. It may be more this year as we need to do the cabin sides this time....I agree there are many people who really like polyglow....we fouled up the year we did it by using a cleaner on the deck a couple of weeks later that removed the polyglow in vertical streaks....big mistake....we later discovered dreft or ivory snow cleans the deck but does not remove the polyglow..Patrick
To each his/her own
If you read all the opinions that is the ultimate conclusion. To poliglow or wax an old boat you need to polish it first. Any flaws in the finish will just be sealed under the poliglow. I inherited a poliglowed boat and have used it for five years. My gelcoat is off white. That helps quite a bit as the poliglow definitely yellows a bit with time, however, my boat has likely had poliglow on it for a decade and never been stripped. You are supposed to strip it about every five years according to the manufacturer. Ease of stripping? I have seen mixed reports of how hard it is.
To me the biggest advantages are that most years it is easy to have a great looking boat. Mine looks better than 9 out of 10 boats in the harbor, but Mainesail's boat is that 10th boat. But I will be done putting my maintenance coat of poliglow on and on my third beer before he is done waxing his boat.
If you read all the opinions that is the ultimate conclusion. To poliglow or wax an old boat you need to polish it first. Any flaws in the finish will just be sealed under the poliglow. I inherited a poliglowed boat and have used it for five years. My gelcoat is off white. That helps quite a bit as the poliglow definitely yellows a bit with time, however, my boat has likely had poliglow on it for a decade and never been stripped. You are supposed to strip it about every five years according to the manufacturer. Ease of stripping? I have seen mixed reports of how hard it is.
To me the biggest advantages are that most years it is easy to have a great looking boat. Mine looks better than 9 out of 10 boats in the harbor, but Mainesail's boat is that 10th boat. But I will be done putting my maintenance coat of poliglow on and on my third beer before he is done waxing his boat.
I've been using NewGlass2 http://www.newglass2.com/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi
on my '77 C30 for about 15 years now. I disagree that you have to use it on an old faded hull. The idea of acrylic coating is that nothing will stick to it. Try sailing thru an oil slick on the very first day of launch. That slick will be on your hull until you compound it off next season. It will simply rub off acrylic. A bottle of New Glass cost $40. I can get 2 - 3 seasons, 5 -6 coats per season. It takes about 2 - 3 hours to put on 6 coats. No wax on / wax off. I has NEVER yellowed or cracked. Every couple of years I willl lightly wet sand with 1200 paper. Thats it! Check out the shine. See the reflection of the garage and fence!
on my '77 C30 for about 15 years now. I disagree that you have to use it on an old faded hull. The idea of acrylic coating is that nothing will stick to it. Try sailing thru an oil slick on the very first day of launch. That slick will be on your hull until you compound it off next season. It will simply rub off acrylic. A bottle of New Glass cost $40. I can get 2 - 3 seasons, 5 -6 coats per season. It takes about 2 - 3 hours to put on 6 coats. No wax on / wax off. I has NEVER yellowed or cracked. Every couple of years I willl lightly wet sand with 1200 paper. Thats it! Check out the shine. See the reflection of the garage and fence!
Attachments
I have used Poly Glow on 5 boats for many years and have had no problems with yellowing. It takes about 2 hours per year to add a couple of new coats and the shine is blinding on a sunny day.
New Glass
I had a 1990 Hunter that I purchased as a nine month old repo. (Don't ask) Anyhow, it was in a repo marina near a coal loading facility and scrap metal processor. The bank paid for one cleaning. It took three months to close on the deal.
Every pore on that deck's gelcoat was wide open. I waxed it twice a year for three years and it just sucked it up and looked awful in six months. I tried New Glass and it looked great. Plus, it worked on the non-skid without making it slick. Every year for the next six years, I had two coats put on. Looked terrific and stayed so much cleaner. Never yellowed.
I also put it on an old, horribly faded 30' sail. We cleaned up the deck with a light cleanser and wet sanded a few spots. We applied New Glass. It was looking pretty good when we sold it six months later. A fraction of the time to bring it back with compound and wax.
I had a 1990 Hunter that I purchased as a nine month old repo. (Don't ask) Anyhow, it was in a repo marina near a coal loading facility and scrap metal processor. The bank paid for one cleaning. It took three months to close on the deal.
Every pore on that deck's gelcoat was wide open. I waxed it twice a year for three years and it just sucked it up and looked awful in six months. I tried New Glass and it looked great. Plus, it worked on the non-skid without making it slick. Every year for the next six years, I had two coats put on. Looked terrific and stayed so much cleaner. Never yellowed.
I also put it on an old, horribly faded 30' sail. We cleaned up the deck with a light cleanser and wet sanded a few spots. We applied New Glass. It was looking pretty good when we sold it six months later. A fraction of the time to bring it back with compound and wax.