I just bought a 30 year old classic plastic Com Pac. Having sat in the sun for most of those years, you can imagine what shape the gel coat is in. I've seen shinier blackboards. Anyway, somebody recommended using Penetrol to bring back some lustre. I've heard of all the high priced refinishing stuff out there like Poli Glow but never Penetrol A quick search of the web shows that people have used it to restore faded fiberglass but a few comments were less than positive. I'd sure like to hear from any of you who have actually first hand experience with the stuff.
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I use it to thin paint
I used it to thin the Easypoxy used to paint our boat but have heard of it used to shine a hull. IMHO I would coumpund the hull with 3M compounds in ascending order of coarse to fine and then wax her... lot of work but likely a longer lasting result David
I used it to thin the Easypoxy used to paint our boat but have heard of it used to shine a hull. IMHO I would coumpund the hull with 3M compounds in ascending order of coarse to fine and then wax her... lot of work but likely a longer lasting result David
Thanks David
I appreciate your input David. I see that Penetrol actually once made "Marine Penetrol" but you're right when you say it actually is a paint thinner type product. Lots of web sites indicate that it will put a gloss on the fiberglass but so will motor oil. One guy said that in hot sun, it turns brown and the brush marks become obvious. He claims a florida boatyard makes a ton of money removing old penetrol from hulls. Yet, other people say it works great. I was hoping more people on this forum would have heard about it. I guess I'll try Poli Glow.
I appreciate your input David. I see that Penetrol actually once made "Marine Penetrol" but you're right when you say it actually is a paint thinner type product. Lots of web sites indicate that it will put a gloss on the fiberglass but so will motor oil. One guy said that in hot sun, it turns brown and the brush marks become obvious. He claims a florida boatyard makes a ton of money removing old penetrol from hulls. Yet, other people say it works great. I was hoping more people on this forum would have heard about it. I guess I'll try Poli Glow.
Poli Glow
About a year ago, we bought a very badly oxidized Hunter 25.5 which had sat on the hard in a boatyard in the sun for several years without any cleaning. It also appeared that the P.O. had not done much in maintenance prior to putting her up for sale. We bought Poli Glow at the suggestion of the broker. Cost about $50 or so for the kit (cleaner and finish) IIRC. Poli Glow uses a relatively simple two-step process. The first step is to scrub the boat with their cleaner to remove the oxidation down to good solid gelcoat. For us, this took about three hours as we did the entire boat above the waterline. We took a lunch break to let her dry (also per directions). The second step is to apply the finish. We only did the hull topsides as Poli Glow itself is unsuitable on the deck since its VERY slippery. Poli Glow dries in just a few minutes. By the time we finished one coat on the boat, the area where we started was already dry and ready for the next coat. We just worked our way around the boat applying the Poli Glow to the hull topsides. This took about 45 minutes for six coats. That was last year. The finish is still bright and shiney. Dirt and grime don't seem to stick. Shine was similar to new and remains that way today. It took about half of the Poli Glow kit (both the cleaner and the finish) to do our entire boat as described above. For the rest of the boat (above waterline), we cleaned (again) with a light boat detergent and applied two coats of Johnson's Future Acrylic Floor Finish. Its applied relatively heavy (to penetrate and "soak in" to seal the surface) and smoothed out with a sponge to pick up the excess drips and runs. Took a couple of hours for each coat to dry. Future provides a finish that has good footing and a nice sheen. It resists dirt and is easy to clean. Just make really sure that the boat is very clean in the areas where Future is to be applied. It will seal in the dirt very nicely. The Admiral bought it for about $6 per bottle, we used a little less than 2 bottles for two coats. My understanding is that Future can be removed by scrubbing with an ammonia-based cleaner. The boat doesn't look new, but much of the shine is restored and and she stays a lot cleaner since the dirt rolls off easily. We are satisfied with the overall results and often get compliments, especially from those who saw the "before" condition of out boat. We considered Penetrol, but heard too many horror stories about it turning black and being difficult to remove. There are good reports about some Island Girl products for the hull topsides. Check their web site (or this one) for more details since their propduct line is more extensive than Poli Glow. See Practical Sailor for their reoort and opinions. We went with Poly Glow and are satisfied. We also tried Island Girl non-skid sealer using the EXACT process recommended by the manufacturer. We removed it after a couple of weeks since it never quite dried and remained slightly tacky. It really attracted and held the dirt nicely (ugh..
). The result for us was that it required a little too much effort to keep the boat clean. Please note that we followed the printed instructions and those handwritten by the owner of Island Girl TO THE LETTER and still had problems. ymmv. One more point of interest. The original color of our Hunter is that light beige they offered in the 80s. If either Poli Glow or Future "yellows" the finish, it might only appear as a deepening of the original color of our boat and may not be as detectable as it might be on white gelcoat. (I can't tell if either material yellows or not). We do not have yellow or brown streaks with either material.
About a year ago, we bought a very badly oxidized Hunter 25.5 which had sat on the hard in a boatyard in the sun for several years without any cleaning. It also appeared that the P.O. had not done much in maintenance prior to putting her up for sale. We bought Poli Glow at the suggestion of the broker. Cost about $50 or so for the kit (cleaner and finish) IIRC. Poli Glow uses a relatively simple two-step process. The first step is to scrub the boat with their cleaner to remove the oxidation down to good solid gelcoat. For us, this took about three hours as we did the entire boat above the waterline. We took a lunch break to let her dry (also per directions). The second step is to apply the finish. We only did the hull topsides as Poli Glow itself is unsuitable on the deck since its VERY slippery. Poli Glow dries in just a few minutes. By the time we finished one coat on the boat, the area where we started was already dry and ready for the next coat. We just worked our way around the boat applying the Poli Glow to the hull topsides. This took about 45 minutes for six coats. That was last year. The finish is still bright and shiney. Dirt and grime don't seem to stick. Shine was similar to new and remains that way today. It took about half of the Poli Glow kit (both the cleaner and the finish) to do our entire boat as described above. For the rest of the boat (above waterline), we cleaned (again) with a light boat detergent and applied two coats of Johnson's Future Acrylic Floor Finish. Its applied relatively heavy (to penetrate and "soak in" to seal the surface) and smoothed out with a sponge to pick up the excess drips and runs. Took a couple of hours for each coat to dry. Future provides a finish that has good footing and a nice sheen. It resists dirt and is easy to clean. Just make really sure that the boat is very clean in the areas where Future is to be applied. It will seal in the dirt very nicely. The Admiral bought it for about $6 per bottle, we used a little less than 2 bottles for two coats. My understanding is that Future can be removed by scrubbing with an ammonia-based cleaner. The boat doesn't look new, but much of the shine is restored and and she stays a lot cleaner since the dirt rolls off easily. We are satisfied with the overall results and often get compliments, especially from those who saw the "before" condition of out boat. We considered Penetrol, but heard too many horror stories about it turning black and being difficult to remove. There are good reports about some Island Girl products for the hull topsides. Check their web site (or this one) for more details since their propduct line is more extensive than Poli Glow. See Practical Sailor for their reoort and opinions. We went with Poly Glow and are satisfied. We also tried Island Girl non-skid sealer using the EXACT process recommended by the manufacturer. We removed it after a couple of weeks since it never quite dried and remained slightly tacky. It really attracted and held the dirt nicely (ugh..
). The result for us was that it required a little too much effort to keep the boat clean. Please note that we followed the printed instructions and those handwritten by the owner of Island Girl TO THE LETTER and still had problems. ymmv. One more point of interest. The original color of our Hunter is that light beige they offered in the 80s. If either Poli Glow or Future "yellows" the finish, it might only appear as a deepening of the original color of our boat and may not be as detectable as it might be on white gelcoat. (I can't tell if either material yellows or not). We do not have yellow or brown streaks with either material.Wax Test Results
Check out the Nov.15 issue of Practical Sailor. They've already done your homework for you.
Check out the Nov.15 issue of Practical Sailor. They've already done your homework for you.
try sanding it oof
We put enough gel coat on that boat to allow you to wet sand it with 220 and then with 600 grit wet and dry, then buff it out. Its a bit of work but ill bet it works great! wax it and your good to go
We put enough gel coat on that boat to allow you to wet sand it with 220 and then with 600 grit wet and dry, then buff it out. Its a bit of work but ill bet it works great! wax it and your good to go
Poli Glow experience
Bill, I was interested in your experience with Poli Glow and I am curious how you treated the boot stripe. Did you clean and treat the boot stripe or did you protect it from the treatment? I want to restore the topsides of my boat, but the boot stripe has a nice gloss. However, the painted stripe just below the rub rail has a tired looking finish and there is an old decal pin stripe that I think I will simply remove. I want to make the stripe wider since it is only about an inch. When I select the paint for the top stripe, I may not get a good match for the boot stripe, so I suppose I may need to paint that also, even though the finish is good now. Any advise on how to treat and prepare for finishing the stripes would be greatly appreciated!
Bill, I was interested in your experience with Poli Glow and I am curious how you treated the boot stripe. Did you clean and treat the boot stripe or did you protect it from the treatment? I want to restore the topsides of my boat, but the boot stripe has a nice gloss. However, the painted stripe just below the rub rail has a tired looking finish and there is an old decal pin stripe that I think I will simply remove. I want to make the stripe wider since it is only about an inch. When I select the paint for the top stripe, I may not get a good match for the boot stripe, so I suppose I may need to paint that also, even though the finish is good now. Any advise on how to treat and prepare for finishing the stripes would be greatly appreciated!
Scott,
I cleaned the stripes and treated them as I did the surrounding surfaces. The hull topside stripe was cleaned and treated w/ Poly Glo and the vinyl stripes on top of the cabin were cleaned and treated with Future. The vinyl stripes are going to get replaced, but that's for a different year. Results on the hull topsides was good and I feel like I'm getting a slight reprieve on the vinyl stripes.
I cleaned the stripes and treated them as I did the surrounding surfaces. The hull topside stripe was cleaned and treated w/ Poly Glo and the vinyl stripes on top of the cabin were cleaned and treated with Future. The vinyl stripes are going to get replaced, but that's for a different year. Results on the hull topsides was good and I feel like I'm getting a slight reprieve on the vinyl stripes.
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