UV Inhibitors question

[Roger Long]

There is an acrylic polyurethane floor varnish I used on my house floors several times and I love the stuff. It's hard as nails and dries in about an hour. I once put 6 coats on the mahogany baseboard for a model in just one day and it looks great years later.

I can't use it outside on the boat because it doesn't have UV inhibitors. That got me wondering. Can anyone here tell us what UV Inhibitors are and how they work? I remember reading somewhere that they don't protect the finish but the surface of the wood underneath so it doesn't break down and release the finish film. Is that true?

If you could buy UV inhibitor in a bottle and add it to this varnish it would be just about the perfect boat finish as near as I can tell.

 

[William12213]

On the exterior of the boat it is hard to get anything to last. I doubt that you can buy anything to pour into your varnish to make it last longer but I may be wrong. What I do to all my bright work is Sand it to bare wood. Next stain it with a water based stain if you want a color change. Once that is dry I apply a couple coats of epoxy. Then I go over that with a polyurethane that has a UV protect ant.
That finish becomes hard as nails and all you have to do for years to come is lightly scuff with a steel wool pad and add a fresh coat of poly. I add a couple coats and this is an every other year ritual.
I like to see the would grain and the shine and this makes both of those things happen. It is a little bit of a pain the first time but then you have almost no work after that for years.

 

[gmeyerga]

not quite floorwax

I am in my second season with something called PMP Luster
which seems like an acrylic wax (but is claimed not to be).
It is meant for cars and boats. I found it at the Savannah Boat Show
two years ago.
I used the recommended stripper to clean my weathered chalky
topsides and then wiped five coats of the stuff on the clean hull.
Drying time between coats in the Georgia sun is less than a minute.
Like a floorwax there is no buffing, and the skin is hard.
Last spring I washed the sides with a dishwashing detergent and wiped two new coats on. My sides still look like the've been painted.
No yellowing, no flaking, no problems.
Since the whole thing is too good to be true I keep eyeing the
topsides suspiciously, but so far so good.