Whether your boat is in the water or on the trailer, keeping a lustrous high gloss shine will make you the envy of all boat owners, and the choice of all who want to ride on the water. But how do you keep that showroom shine? For the best results you should use both a polish and a wax to make sure your boat always looks it best. But depending on the type coating you have on your boat, will decide which types of polish and wax you use.
Why Should you use both?
Boat surfaces take a beating while in use and not in use. The Suns UV rays are constantly bombarding you boat. This will cause the surface of the boat to fade. And if left untreated or protected it could even become brittle and start chipping or cracking. This will allow water in under the gel coat or paint to sit on exposed fiberglass and could cause rot. Water and elements can easily start oxidizing you paint surface within 3-4 months if not properly taken care of. This will not only make you boat look bad, but it can also rob your boats performance if it is left for too long. Using a Polish first will quickly remove any oxidation and build up that can dull the surface. Next using a Wax will provide a coating that block UV rays and create a slick surface which water will glide across.
Polish and wax for Gel Coat finished boats
Gel Coat finishes on a boat are a little different from your normal automotive paint finishes. Gel Coats tend to be more porous and can actually stain fairly easy compared to paint. For this reason, I would not use any over the counter Automotive Polishes or waxes. I would use a product that is designed to work with the gelcoat surface. This will reduce the likelihood of removing to much gelcoat each time you use it.
Polish
- Collinite 920 Boat Cleaner
- Total Boat Fiberglass Polish
- Meguiar’s Marine One Step Compound (But be gentle)
- Starbrite 801 Marine Polish
Wax
- Collinite 885 Wax
- Total Boat Premium Boat Wax
- Starbrite 823 Pre softened Wax
- Meguiar’s Marine Pure Wax
Polish and wax for painted finish boats.
Painted Boat finishes are like your automotive coatings for the most part. According to Alexseal, a manufacturer of high-quality Boat paints, you can use most high-quality wax’s and polymer sealers. but they do recommend these products for their paints.
Polish:
- 3M Perfect-it Ultra Fine Polish, with a 3M Blue foam pad (for dark colors)
- 3M Perfect-it Machine Polish, with a 3M Black Foam Pad (for lighter colors)
- Meguiar’s Flagship Premium Marine Paint Polish
Wax:
3M Scotch Guard Liquid Wax
Meguiar’s Flagship premium Marine Wax
Meguiar’s Flagship Ultimate Quick wax (for touch up’s)
Tools you will need:
Some of the basic equipment you will need to complete this job can vary. It just depends on how hard you want to work. At the minimum you will need a bag of microfiber rags, Bucket, soap, and lots of elbow grease. But if you would rather spend more time on the water than in your driveway, I would suggest using these tools.
- Electric Rotary Buffer
- Wool Buffing Pad
- Foam Buffing Pad
- Safety goggles
- Microfiber rags
- Painters tape
- Extension Cord
- Bucket for water
- Soap
Steps on how to use polish and wax.
The steps listed below are for basic gelcoat and pain maintenance. If your surface has extreme oxidation and paint fade, then you will need to take a few more steps to restore your shine. If the surface of the boat is semi rough and has a chalky texture the oxidation is too much for these steps listed below. If you would like to learn more about this and how to repair it click here.
The steps are the same for both gel coat and paint. The only difference is the products that you will use.
- I like to wash the boat to remove all the major gunk or grime that may be attached to the boat. This could be anything from some dried vegetation, to salt deposits. Just use an appropriate rag to get it all off there. You can use just about any soap you want for this step. Because we are going to be using a Polish you can use liquid dish soap for this step. Soap, like Dawn, will strip away wax. So do not use this soap if you are just washing your boat after getting off the lake. This will leave your boat unprotected. Any other time you wash your boat, either just use water and a microfine rag or use an approved marine grade or automotive soap. Once it is washed dry the boat off.
- Determine how bad the oxidation on the surface is. If there is a noticeable amount you will be using a wool pad to use the polish with. If there are more swirls or imperfections then oxidation you can us a foam pad. The wool pad will give you a little deeper cut, but it will leave swirls that will need to be removed with a foam pad .
- This is an optional step, but I like to use painters tape to mask off certain areas that you don’t want any of the polish or wax to get on. Some of these areas would include wood swim decks or accents, and rubber seals. Anything that is porous or has groves that could be hard to clean out later after it is dry and really noticeable. This just helps with the clean up at the end.
- Next, take the polish and apply it to the area you are working on. I would keep the working area small. Good working size is 3ft x 3ft. This keep the polish from drying and causing deeper swirls. you can use what every you would like to apply the polish. Just make sure you smear it around to a thin layer. If you don’t do this why you start the rotary buffer it will fling the polish all over, creating more work for you in the end. If your Buffer has variable speeds, start on a slower speed and gradually speed up. You will not have to press hard on the buffer. Let it do all the work. General rule of thumb, if it is bouncing all over and hard to control you are pressing to hard.
- Make several passes with the buffer, left to right, then several passes up and down. each pass should overlap a little. Do not let your polish dry out completely. This will cause swirls. After you complete the passes or if it starts to dry out, Use a microfiber rag to remove the excess. If there is still some oxidation or deep swirls do the process again. complete this for the rest of the boat. When a nice glossy finish is present move on to the wax.
- Apply the wax the same way you did with the polish. This time use a foam pad on your buffer. Using a slow speed work the wax all over the working area. Make sure all areas are covered, by overlapping strokes. Once it is covered let the wax dry to a powdery finish. A good test is if you can run your finger across the wax and it comes off with little to no streaking it is ready to be removed.
- I prefer to use a Microfiber cloth to remove the wax. It gives me a little more control with the amount of pressure you use to get it off. Not to mention I love the feel of the glide across the surface. Oh ya. Remove all the was and clean any areas that have remaining material. a soft tooth brush works great for this.
Now go out on the water and bask in the glow of a beautiful boat.