Waxing

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Not sure I will ever do an acid wash again. I had it done last fall and it left the finish very dull. It’s been more work than normal to polish and wax.

Indoor storage is nice for many reasons. Polishing and waxing the entire boat by myself takes several days. I’m not as young as I used to be. My boat is an hour and half drive. Being indoors allows me to break up the project over several days and space it out for “healing” time.
 
I hope "wax" is a generic term for all of you. In 2018, while we still wait on the hover-boards promised in "Back To The Future", there are far better products than traditional wax available.

MM
 
Blueone said:
Why would you acid wash the hull?... are you talking about the paint or sides
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Sides, It removes all the hard water spots and stains near my sink drains. I mix maybe a quart of muriatic acid with 4 gallons of water. Make sure and tape off bottom paint and drape some plastic. I use a rain suit, goggles, rubber gloves and rubber boots. Wet, brush on acid and rinse with lots of water, so works best if you have help rinsing. Showroom shine even before I put on two coats of Meguiars wax.
 
Phasma said:
two hours of buffing, polishing and waxing. Port side below the rub rail looks much nicer. Monday I will finish the starboard side. My shoulders are killing me...
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I though polish and waxing was laborious then a new boot (waterline) stripe went to the top of the priority list. What a royal pain in the butt. Took a whole afternoon to do one side of our 280! SWMBO wanted a gold stripe that matches the boat name and the old white stripe was pretty beat up.
 
3-4months before I wax....(insert sad face here)
 
"Not sure I will ever do an acid wash again. I had it done last fall and it left the finish very dull. It’s been more work than normal to polish and wax."

I have been using "Limeaway" for several years, I spray the boat with Limeaway and scrub with my boat brush rinse with water and it removes all water spots and crap around the drains, some areas need to be done twice...I use buff magic and pro polish and it turns out great...not as harsh as an acid wash.
 
When the marina hauls my boat out of the water in the fall they of course give the bottom and sides a good pressure wash with just water, and then they come back with muriatic acid and brush it on the scum line and then give that a thorough rinse. Once inside for the winter, and before any buffing (if needed), the whole boat gets wiped down with white vinegar to remove any water spots and leftover scum.

I noticed a couple of you mentioned scum or crap around the drain/AC thru hull fittings, I came up with an idea for my '01 410DA that eliminated virtually all the water stains on the hull (our marina is just off a dirty/silty river). I can't seem to find a pic anywhere, but my inspiration was this 1st pic of a thru hull generator exhaust. The 2nd is obviously a regular stainless thru hull fitting. I kept seeing hoses sticking out of some boats to try and keep the crud from running/dripping down the hull but after a short while they either fell offer or were also very scummy looking. Anyway if anyone is still reading this, you'll notice the regular thru hull has tangs on the inside and my idea was that if we were to cut a length of stainless tube and stick it in there it would center itself and work just like the ugly plastic hoses but look way better. I talked with my technician at the marina about all of this, and we decided to have them stick out about 5/8", and just weld them from the backside. My boat was a 2001 so I'm pretty sure it was time to re-bed all the thru hulls anyway.
Ok, so long story short...after doing all of this I ran the boat for another 3 summers, and never had those awful stains running down the sides of my boat again.
exhaust thru hull.png

stainless thru hole.png
 
LOL..... "Anyway if anyone is still reading this"

That's hilarious... That line is where I started scrolling down looking at the pics and thinking of moving on

okay I will go back now :)
 
I feel a bit safer with soft tubing sticking out of the thru hulls...I would hate to hit something with a stainless tube..
It probably is a regional thing but I don't have problems without the tubes with staining....But I do wash the sides every week
 
Ricochet said:
"Not sure I will ever do an acid wash again. I had it done last fall and it left the finish very dull. It’s been more work than normal to polish and wax."
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Acid will take the shine off anything if you let it dry without rinsing well, that’s why you have to throughly rinse right after applying it. Whoever did your wash should buff it out for you.
 
Last year I had the hull acid washed, buffed, and polished (prior to spring launch). I used NuFinish mid season, and that seemed to keep the water spots to a minimum. Hull only needs a good polish this year. So, I'm going to follow the same pattern this year and see if it works again. NuFinish works perfect on the deck. Keeps a deep shine, with little buffing required.
 
jsed said:
Last year I had the hull acid washed, buffed, and polished (prior to spring launch). I used NuFinish mid season, and that seemed to keep the water spots to a minimum. Hull only needs a good polish this year. So, I'm going to follow the same pattern this year and see if it works again. NuFinish works perfect on the deck. Keeps a deep shine, with little buffing required.
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I am just curious did you use NuFinish car polish?
 
I’m one of those cheapskates who uses the clear vinyl hose in the AC discharges to prevent them from staining the hull.
I spread a little clear boatlife caulk on the outside of the hoses to keep them in place before inserting and they stay in there solid all season. They get pulled in the fall so I can winterize the AC units by pumping pink in through the discharges.
If you look closely for them when the boat is in the water you can see them, but they otherwise kind of blend in, especially when the AC is on and water is pumping out of them.
Much better than those ugly brown stains.
Re: Acid wash. Once the boat is out of the water and the yard power washes the bottom, out of necessity, I follow up by removing the staining along the waterline with Mary Kate On/Off. As far as water spots or any other stains on the hull are concerned, I polish the hull with a machine in the fall to get them off, and apply some wax to protect it over the winter.
Then I do another light polish below the rubrails in the Spring to freshen it up and apply at least three coats (for coverage) of Collinite Liquid Insulator Wax before launch. I’ve tried several products over the years and found that product to work the best for me on the hull.
It seems to hold up through the whole season so I don’t have to fool around with trying to wax below the rubrails while my boat is in the water. Anything that does get on it over the season seems to come off pretty easy in the Fall too.
 
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