# will car polish/wax be safe on gel coat?



## NewportNewbie (Jul 30, 2011)

Starting to get some light hazing and oxidation. I have tons of good meguiars car polishing products. Is this safe for gel coat or do I need a "marine" polish. I find when you as marine to the name of the product it may be the same just more expensive. Thought I'd ask before I tried it.


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## night0wl (Mar 20, 2006)

Read MaineSaile's post on boat finish. 

Basically, anytime I hear terms like "Polishing" or "remove light oxidation"...it means that there are abrasives in the product and long term use of the product is dangerous to gelcoat. 

If you need to remove oxidation, why not just use a specialty product designed just for that purpose (as mild or least abrasive as possible). Then use the best quality wax as possible. Living in Florida, this is especially important for me because U-V is just brutal here. 

I use Aquabuff 2000 for exidation (once every couple of years at most). I use Collinite FleetWax every 2 months. Orpine boat soap to keep the stuff off. For non-skid, I use Starbrite nonskid with PTEF.


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## travlin-easy (Dec 24, 2010)

It really doesn't make a bit of difference. There was a great article pertaining to waxes in Practical Sailor a couple years ago about this. The waxes were pretty much the same, but there was a big difference in the price when it had the word "Marine" or "Boat" on the label. 

Gary


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## PaulinVictoria (Aug 23, 2009)

Meguirs Gold Class wax works just fine. I did mine back in September and it's only just starting to look like it needs doing again. Obviously sun will degrade it quicker so I am expecting to give it a clean and re-wax in the next month or so, then again a bit later in the season.


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## fiberglass1 (Nov 16, 2009)

Worry about the shine first and the wax later. Ask 10 boat people about wax and you'll get 15 different answers. But here's the fact - gel coat is porous. Any oxidation on a gel coat surface will be pushed down into the pores by a polish or a wax and the shine will only last a few months. The oxidation must be removed before any polishing takes place or you're just wasting your time. If the oxidation is heavy enough that when you rub your finger on it, you have any color at all on your finger, then you're gonna have to wet sand it. Don't be intimidated - it's easy. Start with 1200 grit and LOTS of water, hose, not a bucket. Keep it wet and move quickly, it doesn't take much. You should be able to do a 25 foot hull side in an hour. Then polish with a wool [email protected] rpm using 3M Super Duty or equivalent, followed by Finesse-It or equivalent. Then, get back into the wax argument with all the "experts" and wax it or don't. The shine got there because of elbow grease, not wax!


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## zeehag (Nov 16, 2008)

chevy made corvettes of fiberglass. folks used car wax on em. it works. no sweat. they also use car paint(imron) on boats without ill effect. conside4 the substance of which it was made and use the wax for that job. ccorvettes were shined with allkinds of waxes for cars. go for it and have fun.
gelcoat and fiberglass arent mysterious.


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

"they also use car paint(imron) on boats without ill effect. "
Usually. I do know one beautiful hull that the former owner (a luxury car dealer) had painted in a british racing green kind of color. One night against fenders at a marina...and the white hull was showing through.
Don't know if that was from the paint being "wrong" or just misapplied, but the new owner was not at all happy about it.


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## zeehag (Nov 16, 2008)

here's a clue--PAINT WEARS OFF. is why gelcoat is going to make boat retain what little value it has. paint drops the overall value/worth if the boat as it has to be repainted regularly. dont want color coming off?? DONT PAINT.

even interlux and other , like imron, epoxy type paints will rub off with enough chafe.


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