Best Boat Wash?

**mayberry** · 08-20-2018, 08:04 PM

I just bought a new 24' bay boat. This is the first boat larger than a Jon boat I've ever owned. Been on plenty of boats, but never owned one and had to maintain it. I assume since the hull is fiberglass and the paint is a gelcoat, my normal Pinnacle AIO car wash ins't the best option. What do you suggest for a boat wash that will protect the hull and maintain the shine for years?

**mayberry** · 08-21-2018, 08:47 PM

I posted this over in the Boat and Marine forum but apparently there isn't much traffic over there. There hasn't been a post in days. I just bought a new 24' bay boat. This is the first boat larger than a Jon boat I've ever owned. Been on plenty of boats, but never owned one and had to maintain it. I assume since the hull is fiberglass and the paint is a gelcoat, my normal Pinnacle AIO car wash isn't the best option. What do you suggest for a boat wash that will protect the hull and maintain the shine for years? I found some cheaper StarBrite boat wash at the local marine store, but I'm sure there are better things to keep the boat looking new. What do you suggest?

Mike Phillips · 08-22-2018, 05:17 AM

Originally Posted by mayberry

I posted this over in the Boat and Marine forum but apparently there isn't much traffic over there.

There hasn't been a post in days.

I'm the only staff that monitors and posts on the boat detailing forum and to be honest, it's hard to stay caught up on this forum.

Just taking all the regular e-mails I get with questions and posting my answers to the forum takes a lot of time. (I don't answer questions for one set of eye balls)

Originally Posted by mayberry

I just bought a new 24' bay boat. This is the first boat larger than a Jon boat I've ever owned. Been on plenty of boats, but never owned one and had to maintain it. I assume since the hull is fiberglass and the paint is a gelcoat, my normal Pinnacle AIO car wash isn't the best option.

First, the gel-coat is gel-coat, not paint. Gel-coat is simply polyester resin with pigment. Fiberglass is technically the glass weave or matte that's used with un-pigmented polyester resin to make "things". Things like your boat. So when building a boat they will take a boat mold, apply a mold release wax, spray in the pigmented polyester resin to give the boat a color and then behind this first layer of pigmented polyester resin they will start laying in the "fiberglass" cloth saturated with more of the polyester resin without the pigment. Using this procedure the two types of polyester resin, the pigmented and un-pigmented make a uniform layer that is strong and of course waterproof.

So when working on boats you have gel-coat finished boats (or technically gel-coat "fabricated" boats), and painted boats. When working on a painted boat, you really need to know what you're doing because a person can EASILY screw up the very expensive paint on a boat.

Gel-coat boats are fairly bubba-proof.

Originally Posted by mayberry

What do you suggest for a boat wash that will protect the hull and maintain the shine for years? I found some cheaper StarBrite boat wash at the local marine store, but I'm sure there are better things to keep the boat looking new. What do you suggest?

Here's a good cleaning and maintenance wash

Marine 31 Gel Coat Wash & Wax with Carnauba

Mike Phillips · 08-22-2018, 05:17 AM

What are you plans to polish and wax the gel-coat hull?

**mayberry** · 08-22-2018, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by Mike Phillips

What are you plans to polish and wax the gel-coat hull?

That's my next question. I have a Porter Cable 7424 XP Orbital Polisher I use on my vehicles and hope I can use it for the boat, too. I will be taking the boat into salt water 3-4x/yr, so I will want to wax it prior to taking those trips, I suppose, to help resist the salt water. Do you have any suggestions, with frequency, technique and products?

**joecollectin** · 08-22-2018, 08:35 AM

Congrats on the new boat! Remember, it's better to have friends with boats than to own a boat......As for boat soap; I use Meguires Gold Class car soap because it cleans well. Others may have better suggestions but, other than Marine 31 polish/wax/compound, etc - I don't generally buy boat specific products. Would suggest checking out Mike's articles on taking care of boats for some in depth looks at what and how to do stuff.

Mike Phillips · 08-22-2018, 08:43 AM

Just to note...

You made two posts for the same subject so I merged them.

No need to start multiple threads for the same topic, it leads to confusion.

Mike Phillips · 08-22-2018, 09:27 AM

Originally Posted by mayberry

That's my next question. I have a Porter Cable 7424 XP Orbital Polisher I use on my vehicles and hope I can use it for the boat, too. I will be taking the boat into salt water 3-4x/yr, so I will want to wax it prior to taking those trips, I suppose, to help resist the salt water.

Do you have any suggestions, with frequency, technique and products?

Two ways to approach this...

2: Find a great one-step cleaner/wax and use this on a regular basis.

2: Go through the steps to apply a ceramic paint coating and this will last longer than an wax.

For a Porter Cable, I'd get the Lake Country ThinPro foam cutting pads or the Griot's BOSS foam cutting pads.

Thin pads are going to rotate and oscillate on your PC better than thick pads and you need pad rotation to remove oxidation and the staining that's going to happen from the water line down.

Marine 31 makes to very good one-step cleaner/waxes, one is heavy cut and one is light cut. If you don't have bad oxidation then use the light cut.

If it were my boat, knowing what I know now about SONAX Polymer Net Shield, AFTER machine buffing with a cleaner/wax I would coat the boat with the SONAX Polymer Net Shield to extend the protection.

SONAX Polymer Net Shield - Closest thing to a coating without being a coating

As for the coating option hang tight I'll show you what my class did this year.

**mayberry** · 08-23-2018, 07:44 AM

Thanks for the replies. The SONAX looks promising. I also am concerned that every time I put the boat in the water, it comes out with a scum line where the water line is. I was hoping to find a quick spray for the ramp, where every time I pull it out, I can do a quick spray and walk around, keeping the boat clean after every trip. I thought some sort of spray wash, or quick detailer may be available for boats, too. The SOMAX would help resist things sticking to begin with. Is there a quick spray for boats, like there is for cars?

**SWETM** · 08-23-2018, 09:41 AM

Looked around a little in the Marine 31 and McKees 37 options. Have not used any myself but there is both rinseless and waterless wash concentrate.

Marine 31 Port to Starboard Rinseless Wash with Carnauba Wax, rinseless boat wash, environmentally friendly boat wash

Marine 31 Stern to Bow Waterless Wash & Wax Concentrate with Carnauba, waterless boat wash, spray on boat wash

They have them in gallon sizes if you like them. I would test with the smaller bottle first which method and brand I like the most before getting the gallon sizes.

The McKees 37 is for cars but suits gelcoat too. So you can pick any brands waterless wash or rinseless wash to your boat. The McKees 37 N-914 rinseless wash is one that leaves nothing behind. So you have the protection as you have on your boat without any interfearing with another protection that could degrade the performance of your protection. It's very usefull if you have a coating on your boat. And it's versitale too as you can dilute it in different ways to use it.

Waterless Auto Wash Concentrate, concentrated waterless wash, spray car wash concentrate

McKee?s 37 N-914 Rinseless Wash