wax on, wax off

The boat I acquired a few weeks back has hulls that are pretty dull & chalky. What's the best way/product(s) to shine'em up? Should I leave the tops alone for traction? Thanks.

A good atuomotive wax ( I use Turtle Wax) and lots of elbow grease. Old, faded gel-coat is very thirsty when it comes to waxing.

I never bothered with the textured part of the decks, too hard to wax.

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Nick

Current Boat
In the market
Previous boats owned
'74 Pearson 30
'84 H16
'82 H18 Magnum
St. Louis, MO

I am in the same boat. My 71 (recently aquired) is in need of some TLC. What about the fiberglass restorer in the hobie cataloge? Anyone use this with good results, or is waxing the way to go. --Matt

"3M Fiberglass Restorer and Wax" if it's bad
"3M Fiberglass Cleaner and Wax" if it's not too bad

Wear a face mask when using these products, you don't want to inhale the dust. Use a power buffer and do about a 2'x2' section of the hull at a time.

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Warm regards,

Jim

Thnaks, I ordered some 3M Fiberglass Restorer and Wax. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

OK...if you're a cheap-@ss b@st@rd like me, you can buy a couple of cans of Comet or Bon-Ami powder at the local grocer's and scrub the dull, oxidized gel-coat right off. Be prepared to use a LOT of elbow grease. I have an old, chalky 14 that had some rust spots that I cleaned off with Comet. When I was finished, the spots where the rust was were bright and shiny like brand-new gelcoat...with no visible scratches. Don't know if I'd want to do the whole boat like that, but I can say that it WILL take off the dullness. It also works good on the textured areas of the hull.

If money is no object or you have the stuff already, a power buffer is the way to go. When I used to work in boat refinishing, we used to buy 3m buffing compound in a gallon bucket and use a power buff. We followed that up with glazing compound on the power buff. Then we put on a coat of wax to finish up. You'll need to have 3 separate buffer pads, since you can't use the same one for all three steps It would make even the worst-looking boats look like new. If there are cracks/crazing in the gelcoat the only real solution is patching them up.

If you're working on the cheap, you can buy rubbing compound and polishing compound at most auto-parts places and get the same results as the power equipment. But you're going to have to work harder to get them. If the boat is REALLY oxidized, you can wet-sand it first.