Marine 31 All in One Gelcoat Polish and Wax

[damaged442]

OK, so a little back story. I love watersports. I love to waterski, wakeboard and surf behind boats. I have for my entire life. As such, you need boats that are up for that task repeatedly. I have destroyed many I/O engines and outdrives in my lifetime, as all we ever did was tow people. So it got me looking for an inboard towboat, one made for that job!

Fourteen years ago, I got a great deal on a 1989 MasterCraft Tristar 190. It was maintained by a former Ford mechanic, and it had only 190 hours on it. Amazing condition, great price. It was a win. The downfall of older boats, well all boats actually, can be the gelcoat. Thankfully, it's primarily white, with some good old typical late 80s teal! The sun normally does a solid job of oxidizing, but I don't think it's too bad. We have all seen way worse.

I have used several things on the gel, as an experiment in trying to get it and keep it shiny, throughout my 14 years of ownership, from 3M Gelcoat Restorer and Wax, Collinite Fiberglass Cleaner and now I just acquired some Marine 31 All in One Gelcoat Polish and Wax.

Last summer, my father decided to add a 1981 19 Skier to the mix (more commonly referred to as a Stars and Stripes). His is beige with awesome brown flake. (He is a retired UPS driver, OK? This boat is perfect for him!) This boat was also maintained well, but again, we are now playing with 28 and 36 year old boats respectively.

I tried getting some before shots, but it was cold, overcast, rainy, and the weather really sucked and nothing really came out. Picture normal, chalky oxidation on both boats. There is no reflection. Nothing too major, and nothing needing wetsanding.

Used my trusty PC7424XP with orange 5.5" LC CCS pads with the Marine 31 product.

First impression: I love the smell of petroleum distillates in the morning. If you are thinking you are going to get some new fruity smell, you have come to the wrong place! LOL.
This stuff just smells like it means business. It was easy to apply, easy to work with, easy to wipe off and the results were exactly what I was hoping for.

One difficult thing I was faced with, was the product was very stubborn to try to remove from the pads when I was trying to clean them. I tried using McKees Polishing Pad Cleaner (spray), the Polishing Pad Rejuvenator (yellow powder) and half a bottle of Ajax liquid dish soap. I used about 8 pads per boat, so needless to say, cleaning pads took quite a while. Not sure if anyone has a trick to assist in cleaning this stuff out of pads more expeditiously, but I used everything in my arsenal! The good results were totally worth it though.

I did my fathers boat first, followed by mine. Due to the uncooperative weather, we put the covers back on as soon as we could. The bottom line is there is very nice reflection, where there previously was none! You can see it in the pics. The pic of the two of them I took last year prior to winterizing, so you can kind of see what they look like without covers.

These pics are after the Marine 31 only. I went back and hit them with Collinite Fiberglass Boat Wax after.

Unfortunately, the rest of the day just downpoured, which is depressing! I did my best based on the conditions to which I was faced!

I need some sun! I wanna ski!!

[damaged442]

Has anyone else had difficulty cleaning your pads after using this?

[Jomax]

Looks good! I was looking into the marine 31 products only to be a bit sad with the oils they add in. Oil tends to make the boat look better only temporarily. I like a product where after I wipe it off, what I see is what it truly looks like, no oils or silicone making it look better.


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[Mantilgh]

Polishing oils are a normal component of polishes and compounds.

They are not there to intentionally hide defects, but just to lubricate during the mechanical process.

Yes, the "oils" can hide some minor defects, that's why you would want to do a panel wipe after your test spot to see what true results you are getting.

I would imagine that most compounds and polishes sold here have various levels and types of polishing oils.

Many people here recommend Menzerna polishes and are they are known to be more on the oily side which helps with dusting and give them longer working times.

The only thing different is that Marine31 is telling you they are there while few others do. But to me I assume most all have them.

I'm not sure which products are water based, but I would guess that they probably use some form of silicone for lubrication.

Neither are necessarily "bad".