Hull of a Glow
 

If your boat's hull looks dingier than a high-school locker, liven it up with a coat of Poli Glow. I used this polyurethane-based fiberglass polish on my old 1968 cruiser, and while it didn’t bring the finish back to showroom quality, I could once again see my reflection in the hull. I’ve tried a number of waxes and polishes on the hull and Poli Glow did in two hours what the rest couldn’t do at all.

Unlike petroleum-based products, Poli Glow doesn’t have an oil base that can harden, yellow and flake off. Instead, its water-based blend of polymers form a sealer that infiltrates the fiberglass and cures to a hard finish that soap and water won’t rinse off.

Your hull has to be squeaky clean and dry, plus you must remove all oxidation and old wax before this liquid polish can work its magic. Poli Glow comes with an applicator and is available in 16- and 32-oz. bottles. The 32 oz. size was just enough for my 32-footer.

—S. Reininger

After one year of exposure, several of our do-it-yourself restorers, as well as professionally applied Microshield, retain their protective glow.

Last spring, we took nine badly weathered, dull, and splotchy fiberglass panels and brought back their gloss and appearance (to varying degrees) with a collection of products known as "hull restorers." We then hung them on south-facing racks to face the Connecticut weather. We reported on them in the October 1, 1997 issue. Now, after a year of exposure, we took them down so that we could a) examine them, b) apply a fresh coat, and c) determine if there are any problems in removing them from the fiberglass surface.

As we said in the last report, these products are best thought of as temporary fixes; all of them can markedly improve the appearance of a weathered fiberglass surface, but none of them will stand up as well as a good paint job. On the other hand, most are a lot less expensive than a paint job, and last considerably longerthan wax.

When a boat is new, it’s shiny with a uniform color. That’s because the gelcoat, which gets its color from very fine particles of opaque pigment suspended in the plastic film, has a very smooth surface. It’s glossy because rays of light that strike the surface at an angle are virtually all reflected back at the same angle. As the fiberglass ages, sun and weather cause the pigments to change color from oxidation and UV exposure, and the gelcoat surface becomes microscopically pitted, so that light, instead of being reflected in one direction, becomes scattered, reflecting back in random directions. The change in pigment color results in a faded or blotchy appearance.

What can you do about this? Remove the surface layer with an abrasive. Sandpaper is generally too coarse, so a polish (very fine) or a coarser rubbing compound is used, followed by polishing. But it’s just about impossible to polish the surface to a high gloss. Instead, a transparent film is applied.

Almost any liquid, including water, will provide a high gloss—for a while. The classic approach is wax. Our experience with waxes is that the best of them will keep a shine for six months or less, with three months being more typical. The most durable waxes we’ve found are the paste waxes, which contain more high-molecular-weight wax than liquid waxes; they’re also more labor intensive.

Fiberglass restorers use even higher molecular weight to form a more durable film. Typically they use acrylic or acrylic-urethane resin. Just about all of the fiberglass restorers we tested consist of water-based emulsions of resin droplets, which form a clear film when the restorer is applied and the water evaporates. These emulsions have very low viscosities—much like water or liquid floor wax—and dry rapidly. This combination of characteristics makes multiple coats necessary, but means that application is easy and you don’t have to wait for more than a few minutes before applying the next coat. Instructions usually call for about five coats,with three maintenance coats at the end of each year.

We found seven products, plus one for professional application, for a total of eight. Most are sold in kits (cleaners, strippers, polishes, final coat plus applicators).

Our test panels were taken from a severely storm-damaged 32-foot sailboat. All of them had a mottled surface with no trace of gloss.

We applied each product to a different panel, following the instructions provided with each system. For the dealer-applied Microshield, we sent a panel to the manufacturer, and asked him to mask off half and apply his product to the other half.

We checked each panel to see if water would bead on its surface, a good indication of protection. We also measured the gloss of each panel, then placed the panels outdoors, examining them after one, two, three, six, nine, and 12 months’ exposure.

After a year, we brought the panels down. We divided each (except for the Microshield-treated one) in half, washed each down with a soft brush and a solution of liquid dishwashing detergent to remove surface soil, and again measured gloss and tested for beading. We then applied a maintenance re-coating (three coats, actually) to half of each panel. There have been in the past some concerns about the difficulty of removing these coatings, so we stripped the other half to bare fiberglass, using the stripper provided with each product, or, if there was no stripper provided, with the stripper from another product.

We stripped each half-panel down to a flat finish, and then applied five new coats of restorer, in order to see how a stripped and recoated surface would perform when compared to one that had been maintenance coated without being stripped.

After a year, gloss had declined on all the test panels, but all still produced beading and most looked much better than the untreated panels had looked.

Although the gloss reading dropped from an initial value of 24 (spectacular) to 15 (merely very glossy), the panel coated with Microshield looks very good. After a year’s exposure, it’s as glossy as any of the other products we tested was initially. We’re not trying stripping or applying maintenance coats; the manufacturer claims 8 years of gloss retention, and, in any case, we don’t have the means of reapplication (Microshield is sold on a professionally applied-only basis, at $90-$100 per linear foot). We cleaned the surface with a detergent and a soft brush, and put it back on the roof.

The initial gloss reading of 2 dropped to zero after a year’s exposure, although a water-beading test indicated that there was still something there. We found it easy enough to strip; although Sea Breeze doesn’t provide a stripper.

We applied a maintenance coat of one application of Sea Breeze Polish and Sealant followed by one coat of Sea Breeze Boat protectant to the unstripped portion of the panel; we used two coats of each product on the stripped portion. Gloss readings of both halves were 2—the same reading we had obtained with our original application last year.

Vertglas, while it didn’t have an exceptionally high gloss (6) in its original application, retained enough of it after a year to give us a reading of 1. This may sound unimpressive, but there’s a huge difference in appearance between the dead-flat look of a panel scoring zero, and one that shows any gloss at all. Vertglas stripped easily using Vertglas Sealer Remover.

After we published the results of our first tests, The manufacturer commented that the product’s initial gloss may have been adversely affected by our method of application; we had some problems controlling how much liquid was put down with the brush! sponge applicator supplied, so we used the alternative of a soft lint-free cloth. We practiced a bit with the applicator and then applied six new coats of Vertglas to the stripped portion of the panel and three maintenance coats to the unstripped portion. This time, our initial gloss reading was a respectable 9.

With an initial gloss reading of 12, New Glass retained enough gloss after a year to register a 2 on our yardstick gloss meter. Despite some comments we’ve received about difficulty in stripping old coats of New Glass, we encountered no trouble using New Glass Stripper/Prep and a scrub pad. As a matter of fact, we also tried stripping it from a small boat that had been restored five years ago, and had been given yearly maintenance coats (three coats) every year since. It, too, stripped easily down to bare glass.

The recoated portion of the panel produced a gloss of 10—a bit lower than the initial reading we obtained last year, but probably within the margin of error of our test procedure.

Sea Glass is a multi-step system, requiring (in addition to the cleaner) several coats followed by a topcoat of Sea Shell Protector. Its initial gloss of 8 wasn’t bad, but after a year outdoors gloss dropped to zero (although water beading still occurred).

The Sea Glass kit comes with a handy scrubber and this, in conjunction with Sea Glass Fiberglass AU Remover, made stripping easy. Sea Shell Protector, as far as we can tell, is a wax. We found that enough of it remained so that we couldn’t apply a maintenance coat of Sea Shell Protector without stripping the old surface. We applied two maintenance coats of the Protector to the unstripped portion of the panel, and applied our original schedule of five coats of Sea Glass followed by two coats of Sea Shell Protector to the stripped portion. The gloss of the maintained section was only 2 (the gloss of the original application was 5).

TSRW (an acronym for This Stuff Really Works) behaved, in many ways, like Vertglas. Although its initial gloss reading last year was only 3, it held up well, giving us a reading of I after a year. We weren’t impressed with TSRW’s Stripper, though. Label instructions call for applying it diluted with water, but we found that it didn’t do a complete job that way; we tried it again full-strength. Even then it failed to completely remove the old coating. We found ourselves with a streaky surface. Finally, we tried New Glass Stripper, which did the trick.

When we re-applied TSRW (six coats over the stripped portion, three maintenance coats) we once again got an initial gloss reading of 3, the same as we obtained by just applying three maintenance coats to the unstripped portion of the panel.

Higley’s initial gloss of 5 dulled down to zero after a year’s exposure, although it continued to cause water to bead. It stripped easily with Higley FiberPrep Gleaner. After three maintenance coats applied to the unstripped portion, gloss came back to 4, or virtually the same as the original. The stripped and recoated section produced a gloss reading of 5.

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Fiberglass Hull Restorers: So Far, New Glass & Poli Glow Shine

Of the seven restorers we tested, dealer-applied Microshield produced the highest gloss, but all the products produced a longer-lasting shine than regular boat wax.

The surest way to insure that your vessel keeps its "new boat shine" is to buy a new boat every couple of years. Failing that, you’re forced to fall back on the dazzling array of polishes, waxes, and fiberglass restorers that crowd chandler shelves and catalog pages.

None of these products can perform miracles. Most can keep a glossy fiberglass surface that is in good shape shinier for longer than if left untreated. Most can distinctly improve the appearance of weathered fiberglass. But all of them are best thought of as temporary fixes. The two real questions are, "How much improvement?" and "How temporary?"

New gelcoat starts out with bright, fresh pigments suspended in a very smooth plastic film, similar to a fresh, painted surface. It’s glossy because rays of light striking the surface from an angle are virtually all reflected in the same direction. As the gelcoat ages under the influence of sun, water, and weather two things happen: The surface of the gelcoat becomes microscopically pitted, and the pigments tend to change color due to surface oxidation and UV absorption.

The degraded pigment causes blotchy color changes. The pitting causes light striking the surface to scatter, or be reflected more or less randomly. Both conditions require separate treatment.

Since the color change is almost completely restricted to the outer surface of the gelcoat, scraping or grinding off the surface layer of gelcoat should—and does—restore a bright, uniform color. The usual "tool" for this is an abrasive, commonly suspended in a liquid. Products with fine abrasives are called polishes; those with coarser, more aggressive abrasives are called rubbing compounds. Polishes work best on slightly weathered surfaces; rubbing compounds on more severely weathered ones. For most cases of bad weathering, the procedure is to use a compound until the color becomes uniform, and then polish until the surface is smooth.

Once you have a uniform, smooth surface, the next step is to cover it with a very smooth, transparent film. Almost anything—including plain water— will cover the surface and provide a good shine. The trick is to get something that will keep the surface covered for a reasonable length of time without disappearing and with-out its surface becoming pitted.

The traditional surface film is wax. Waxing a polished fiberglass surface works fine—forawhile. Back in 1994, we reported on 25 different waxes, all but one of which failed a water beading test after three months of exposure to the elements, and all of which showed noticeable loss of gloss in that time period. The best waxes we found were paste waxes—these contain a higher percentage of high-molecular-weight wax. They’re also the most difficult to apply.

So-called "fiberglass restorers" go a step further. Instead of leaving a wax film, they put a clear acrylic or acrylic-urethane film on the polished fibergiass. Typically a fiberglass restorer consists of a water-based emulsion of acrylic resin which dries to a continuous clear film. The emulsion is very low viscosity—almost like plain water—so application is much easier than with paste wax, although several coats are required. Based on some tests we’ve conducted in the past, restorers can be expected to outlast waxes by a considerable margin. One boat we tested has had a yearly application of New Glass—the first restorer we tried—and it’s still shining after four years.

We obtained samples of all the non-wax fiberglass restorers we could find, after canvassing local chandleries, catalog stores, and boat shows. We came up with seven of them. Since most are sold in kits (cleaners, strippers, polishes, plus the final coat, we bought the kit for each product. In addition, we found one product— Microshield— that’s only sold as a dealer-applied coating. And, just to keep things in some perspective, we included Boat Armor’s Marine Micro Gel Wax System.

A local marina had, hauled up on shore, a storm-damaged 32-foot sailboat that was slated for the wrecker. We dashed out, armed with saws and other implements of destruction and came back with a large supply of badly weathered yellow fiberglass panels, all with a comparable degree of weathering.

Charitably, we could describe the finish as being comparable to an interior flat wall paint.

We sent one panel to Microshield for treatment, asking them to mask off a section and leave it untreated for comparison. We took each of the other test panels and applied a different restorer to it, following the instructions provided with each system.

We noted claims, cautions, instructions, tools required, and ease of application (and removal). We also measured the gloss of each panel by a simple but effective gadget we’ve used in the past; We made a "yardstick" (actually 2-feet long) with its numbers printed as mirror images, and placed it at right angles to each panel. We then peered at the reflection of the yardstick in the panel; the higher the number we could read (the reflected numbers were visible as non-reversed numerals) the better the gloss. Lastly, we checked each panel for water beading.

We then mounted all the panels on the roof—facing southward—to brave the Connecticut winter, which turned out to be an exceptionally mild one. After one month, two months, and three months, we examined the panels; we’ll continue to examine them.

After three months of exposure, all the products except for the Boat Armor Micro Gel Wax appear pretty much unscathed. The wax finish, which had caused water to bead after two months of exposure, no longer did after three months. All the rest caused water to bead, a pretty good indication of lasting protection. Gloss on all the samples, except for the wax was essentially unchanged—our yardstick test is only accurate to within two inches or so, but we couldn’t detect any deterioration. There were, however, significant differences in the initial gloss achieved.

As far as application and initial gloss is concerned, we’ll talk about the individual products separately.

Since Microshield is dealer-applied, we can’t say anything about its ease of application. The sample prepared for us by the manufacturer could have been polished better—the color wasn’t as uniform as we were able to get ourselves, but the gloss was spectacular, measuring over 24 on our yardstick test. Initial expense—$90-$100 per linear foot is high, but the gloss lasts a claimed 8 years, plus there’s no labor.

Sea Breeze is supplied as a three-component kit: a paste Fiberglass Re-conditioner (compound), liquid Fiberglass Polish and Sealant, and liquid Boat Protectant. The instructions provided are vague and unhelpful; the Boat Protectant label states that pre-cleaning is unnecessary; the Fiberglass Polish and Sealant tells you to wash and dry the boat before applying, and the Fiberglass Reconditioner restore color and Boat Protectant are claimed to protect up to one year. There’s no indication of what to use first, nor in what order to use them.

We wound up using the Reconditioner, then the Polish and Sealant, followed by the Boat Protectant. We also tried the boat Protector alone and the Fiberglass Polish and Sealant alone, but we got the best results using all three. Our best results weren’t too good. Initial gloss measured only 2, and we found some signs of streakiness. Our tester commented that the application of the Fiberglass Polish arid Sealant made him feel as if he were auditioning for the wax on/wax off scene in The Karate Kid.

Vertglas

Vertglas is a three-step system consisting of Oxidation Remover, Boat Wash, and Gel Coat Color Restorer! Sealer. The kit includes a Sealer Remover, in a fourth container. Unlike Sea Breeze, Vertglas comes with lengthybut clear detailed instructions. These describe each step and do an excellent job of alerting the user as to what to expect.

Application was easy, with little effort involved, but we found that the applicator supplied tended to put down an excessive amount of the Gel Coat Color Restorer/Sealer—we had much better results when we used a soft lint-free cloth as called for in the instructions.

Gloss was somewhat higher than what we obtained with Sea Breeze: we measured a 6 on our yardstick.

New Glass

New Glass, we’re told, has been reformulated since the last time we tested it—the manufacturer tells us that it has a greater percent of solids. This should mean a thicker coat with the same number of applications or fewer applications for the same coat. It comes as a two-part system: New Glass Stripper/Prep and New Glass.

Label instructions are clear; we also received a separate instruction sheet, which contained several helpful hints about the products’ use. You apply the stripper to a small area, and scrub with a pad (included), then rinse with clean water. We found that the stripper worked well, with little effort. When the rinsed surface had dried, we saw slight streaks in heavily-scrubbed areas. They disappeared when we applied the New Glass.

The instructions refer to an applicator, but we couldn’t find one. A soft cloth worked well. The first couple of coats were a bit streaky, but additional coats brought the gloss up to a very respectable 12.

Sea Glass

The Sea Glass System outnumbered all the competition. It consists of Sea Clean Marine Fiberglass Cleaner, Sea Glass Mirror Reflection, Sea Shell and Sea FoamMarine Fiberglass BoatBath, and Marine Fiberglass A(crylic) U(rethane) Remover. Also included is a sponge-type applicator, a nice scrubbing pad with a handle, and a video that tells you how to use all this.

Once we got over the shock of seeing all those containers, we found that the Sea Glass System was quite easy to use. The Sea Clean, used with the scrub pad, cleaned up our panel with little effort, and The Sea Glass Mirror Reflection went on easily with the sponge applicator provided (We wish the sponge applicator had a handle like that on the scrubber).

The next—and final—application step is to apply a coat of Sea Shell Protector. This is a UV-absorbing topcoat. The other two products—Sea Foam Boat Bath and Marine Fiberglass AU Remover are for routine cleaning and stripping respectively. We’re holding off on the use of these until later on in our test, when ease of removal becomes a factor.

Sea Glass was, overall, easy to use. It produced a gloss of 8—not the best we fo~d,but certainly not the worst— solidly in the middle, we’d say.

TSRW (short for This Stuff Really Works) makes no bones about its claim: "‘Unconditionally Guaranteed 12 Month Protective Coating." Like New Glass, the TSRW system consists of a cleaner/stripper—Quick Strip— and a protective coating—12 Plus. With those two, you get a "Gentie Scrub Duramitt" applicator. The label instructions are simple and clear; there’s an additional instruction pamphlet supplied that basically mirrors the label instructions.

To use the cleaner/stripper, you dilute it 1 to 3 with water, and apply with a sponge or spray (not included), allow it to remain wet for 2-3 minutes, and scrub it off with the scrubber. It worked well, leaving only a couple of streaks (which disappeared when we applied the 12 Plus). You must then rinse the surface thoroughlywith clear water and allow it to dry completely. Lastly you apply the several coats of the 12 Plus topcoat, using a synthetic chamois (included). Our tester found it hard to keep the chamois flat and smooth during the application.

The finished surface looked fairly good, but the gloss measured only 3.

This system is also a two-step one: There’s a FiberPrep Cleaner and a FiberGloss Restorer. The cleaner is diluted 50:50 with water before use and applied with a scrub pad (included). Unlike the other products, Higley FiberPrep Gleaner carries instructions to scrub in a back-and-forth motion, not a circular one. Instructions also tell you to "Rinse! Rinse! Rinse! Rinse thoroughly..." Once the much-rinsed surface is dry, you apply the Fiber-Gloss Restorer with a piece of terry toweling (also supplied).

Cleaning was easy; gloss was moderate (6). Both the cleaner and the restorer claim biodegradability.