Making An Old Boat New...

[blueskiesup]

This spring our 2001 26X is getting a fiberglass make over. For the next 2-weekends I'll be scrubbing and polishing the decks. After long consideration we've decided to go with the Vertglas system to remove oxidation, clean and then seal the fiberglass. If I went solely off Internet recommendations I would have selected Poliglow however our dock neighbor has used Vertglas for the last few seasons and he swears by it. The two selling points for me were that it can be easily stripped off if it looks funny (yellowing or hazing) and apparently its not slippery to walk on as compared to the others (my dock neighbor had me walk on his boat).

So while we may have been 'peer pressured' into our final choice, I am excited to spend a few weekends of blood sweat and tears to bring the Mac to 'as new' condition again. If the median story on these coatings proves to be true, next season may just require a washdown and quick coat of sealer. To date my maintenance regime has been extensive inclusing the removal of mildew spores, dirt and grime every spring...

I'll post some before and after pictures...

[Indulgence]

You're in for a workout. I spent nearly 40 hours cleaning, sanding, applying and polishing.
The result was worth it, but I'm gonna keep waxing her now so I don't have to
go through that again for many years. This is the Poli-glow treatment.

[blueskiesup]

It looks fantastic! I was afraid it was going to take a long time but man... 40 hrs! I better have plenty of beer on hand!

[Indulgence]

Probably mine was a lot dirtier!

One thing I can tell you, the instructions are right. The biggest part of getting this to work well is cleaning the oxidization off the gelcoat. I worked at it forever and finally just ran out of steam. I can see the spots I didn't get completely clear now.

I carefully used 400 grit wet sandpaper to get the really bad areas. It was especially effective on the black. Seemed to be OK, but the pros here on this board lean toward wet 600 grit. (I didn't use much pressure on the sandpaper.)

Beer certainly helped, but the best tool in the shop turned out to be the boat scrubbing brush I normally hook up to a garden hose. Used it to really scour the surface and it saved on back strain.

Good luck,
Laurie

ps I didn't use Poli-glow or wax on any of the non-skid surfaces. I thought about slippery decks as well.

[vkmaynard]

Is a wet deck slick with Polyglo?

How do you get the black out of the pores without pressure washing that keeps removing the gelcoat?

Victor

[irayone]

I have kids so we just wax it with boat wax every time we use it. One on the deck, one on each side. only takes about an hour. Keeps the minor rust down as well. I put one kid in charge of the black stripe... Looks great!!!

[blueskiesup]

So we put her in the Bay today. The white is bright and shiny and the black is uniform and shiny also. The boat looks fantastic!

The oxidation remover is a nice smelling fine grit which is applied with a plastic scouring pad. The washing step works well to remove the oxidation. I only gound one area (fordeck antiskid pad) where the white paint was so thin that the oxidation remover began to uncover some black undercoat.

When wet the deck is about as slippery as it was before, the areas with anti-skid pad is not slippery at all.

I would estimate it took me about 30hrs. of time to clean, de-oxidize, clean, apply 8 coats of vertglas. I think the task could be done more easily if a boat is in better shape than mine was before I began, today it looks like a brand spankin new boat... I am told that next year my work will be much easier, a quick washdown followed by 2 coats of vertglas. As a note, the application of vertglas is very easy, it's repetitive but simple and goes quickly.

I promise I will post pictures soon, I had some on my phone but, my phone went for a swim today so the pictures will have to wait for another day...

As this point I am a believer in the initial performance of vertglas, I will post updates as the stuff wears.


Greg