Best Products for Detailing a Personal Watercraft

[kestrel452]

Howdy y'all. I was wondering what the best products would be for detailing and protecting a WaveRunner. Yamaha uses automotive paint instead of Gel-Kote, so marine-specific products may not yield the best results.

What I'd really like are products I can just spray anything and everything with: paint, plastic, rubber, decals, etc. Preferably with very good hydrophobics and UV protection, since lake water and harsh sunlight are going to be the main demons. Removing lake water residue and UV-induced fading are things I just never want to have to deal with.

My initial thought is a base layer of Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0, and topping that with Optimum Car Wax spray. I'm not certain whether using the DGPS3.0 on rubber or plastic is advised...but the Optimum Car Wax spray should do well with it. Nothing can have any abrasives or chemical cleaning action to it, as there are too many little labels painted/written on the control panels next to the switches which could potentially get rubbed off.

Does anyone like that combination, or is there something better out there? Thank you!

[WhiteShadow89]

I would check out Gtechniq. They have a good array of marine dedicated products in addition to their automotive car care line. In some cases they are very similar to one another. I would call and ask if their marine products are good for automotive paint, but my guess is that their regular car care products would work just fine if the paint and clear are automotive as opposed to gelcote.

[dgage]

I was thinking Griot’s Ceramic 3-in-1 wax would be a very easy to use sealant that you can put on everything. As long as you applied it every 3-4 months, it should provide complete protection. I did verify that it has UV protection but what I don’t know how to identify is if one product has better UV protection than another. I did read on the Optimum forums that there is a legal minimum of UV protection required to be able to advertise that a product has UV protection but that’s about all I could find in a quick search.

For the bottom, I’d put a true ceramic coating since those are normally stronger and longer lasting. The constant contact and friction with the water would likely remove a sealant pretty quickly near and under the waterline.

Here is a post from Mike Phillips (former Autogeek trainer) when they coated some boats in a class.
Ceramic coating a boat (https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/boat-and-marine-craft-detailing/118373-ceramic-coating-boat.html)

[JDGolden]

I’d imagine something is better than nothing as most people ignore that step. Your initial plan sounds good to me, although for the painted areas and bottom, I’d look at Collinite 885 fleet wax for the initial application. Their longest lasting marine line of products.

Get it ready and then spend the time enjoying it on the water.