Longest lasting wax

I decided to try the starbrite teflon polish,What kind do you guys use? I see there is a paste or liquid,some sat ptef,some say teflon and prices range from 10 to 40 bux. So whats the best kind to use and where is the cheapest place to get it from?
Before I wax,just give it a good old wash down "soap and water" let dry and wax,or do I need some special boat cleaner first?
 
Collinite details (for what I've used so far)...

870 Cleaner wax - works great, easy to use with a buffer, strong chemical smell. This removes the embedded dirt from the old wax without cutting into the gel too much. This product does have a fine cutting agent. Can be followed with the 925, 875 or 885.

925 Liquid wax - If you don't shake it, it becomes a solid in the bottle! Extremely hard to work with if you go bigger than 2' square. It takes two people to really get a large job done in a couple hours. One applies the product and the other follows directly behind with the buffer. Long lasting durable shine. I have a couple areas that were done 2 years ago and still shine like new. The problem with this and any other wax is that over time diesel dust (carbon) and other filth will stick to and sink into the wax. It may continue to give you a brilliant shine, but over time it gets discolored by the embedded dirt. It will need to be stripped off and redone.

875 paste wax - I just tried this out and love it. You still need to stay around 2' square and buff it off before it dries - do not apply this in direct sunlight or you'll be there all day redoing it. I applied and removed the first application by hand, then applied a second application by hand and buffed it with a wool pad. The shine is the best I've seen. I'll report back here about the durability of the Collinite 875 as our summer progresses.

Other products I've tried:

Meguiars Flagship Premium Marine Wax - Easy to use and a nice high gloss shine. I don't know if it's the Florida weather, salt water or just tons of use, but this product never seems to hold up for more that 3 months for me.

Star Brite Marine Polish w/Teflon - I know some people swear by this product. If it works good for you, fantastic. Of all the products I have tried, this one goes on the easiest, but lasts the least amount of time. Like the Meguiars, it must be the environment I'm in or the wear and tear. I get maybe 2 months out of this stuff. One nice aspect of this product is that you can apply it in direct sunlight (in small areas) for a quick touch up here and there.

A word on prep (I'm by no means an expert here)

I have become a big fan of 3M Finesse-it II finishing glaze. This stuff is amazing, especially for older gel! After a trial run in a few spots, I now follow any compounding with this product before applying wax. I even used it on the galley sink & countertops (old style glass drop in) and the result was incredible. This adds another step to the project, but the result is well worth the effort.

Anyhow, that's my $0.02
 
I decided to try the starbrite teflon polish,What kind do you guys use? I see there is a paste or liquid,some sat ptef,some say teflon and prices range from 10 to 40 bux. So whats the best kind to use and where is the cheapest place to get it from?
Before I wax,just give it a good old wash down "soap and water" let dry and wax,or do I need some special boat cleaner first?
PTFE is the chemical abbreviation for PolyTetraFluoroEthylene and has a commercial name of Teflon. So the bottles of wax you are seeing are the same thing, Starbrite's marketing department probably changed the label.

I use the liquid and have had great results.
 
Where would you find Colintes Fleetwax, at a marine store or is it something I would have too get on line?

There are great deals to be had online with these products. Once you account for the shipping, you still come out far ahead of the retail prices found at marine specific stores. If you're not in a hurry, I would buy online for sure.
 
this winter we applied:
Step 1) Cleaner/polish
Step 2) Starbrite w/teflon
Step 3) Carnuba wax

Seems to slippery as an eel. great shine.

the Starbrite w/Teflon goes on so easy. I hope it holds up like many say. Supposedly the teflon fills the pores in the gelcoat for better protection?
 
I use the Starbright under the wax. Ghuskin nailed it - "slippery" is the best way to describe it.

Starbright looks great when you first apply it, but it does not seem to hold a shine for very long by itself. I believe that the wax makes the shine last, and the Starbright preserves the wax by helping it shed foreign matter. I'd probably agree with that "filling in the pores" concept. It does something that helps the wax last longer and I'm sure that the wax has an easier job if it is applied over "full pores" instead of a pitted surface. Alone, neither product seemed to last longer than 2-3 months for me. Together, they lasted all season.

I did using the entire hull using 3M Finesse-It III and followed it up with 2 coats of Starbright and 3 coats of Meguires Flagship Premium (non cleaner, I think). The Starbright and Meguires were both very easy and fast to apply with the PC. Both were easy and fast to remove with microfiber towels by hand. I was able to use my bare hand and a hose to wash the hull all summer. No soap.

I had to (or maybe I just wanted to...) do a mid season repolish and wax on all of the white parts above the rub rail.

I'll polish and wax her in a couple of weeks (maybe days if the weather breaks and holds) for this year. :smt038
 
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What about on a new boat??? Just picked up a boat at the boat show from Irwin Marine here on Lake Winnipesaukee and am wondering what to use on a brand new boat for a 5 month(hopefully) boating season.
 
What about on a new boat??? Just picked up a boat at the boat show from Irwin Marine here on Lake Winnipesaukee and am wondering what to use on a brand new boat for a 5 month(hopefully) boating season.


Brand new?? not sure :huh: but this is very popular

Starbrite w/teflon :thumbsup:
 
Well there is Beeswax and Carnuba which will definately give your the best glossy shine (particularly with a dark color hull) but expect to do it a few times in salt water conditions. You can follow up with a coat of Paste Wax (I agree that Meguires is best) which may dull it a bit but "she" will turn heads over other boats.
 
I use a mixture of polishing compound and garry's wax and people have commented on how beautiful the shine is on my 7 yr old boat I like it too!:smt038
 
I use the Starbright under the wax. Ghuskin nailed it - "slippery" is the best way to describe it.

Starbright looks great when you first apply it, but it does not seem to hold a shine for very long by itself. I believe that the wax makes the shine last, and the Starbright preserves the wax by helping it shed foreign matter. I'd probably agree with that "filling in the pores" concept. It does something that helps the wax last longer and I'm sure that the wax has an easier job if it is applied over "full pores" instead of a pitted surface. Alone, neither product seemed to last longer than 2-3 months for me. Together, they lasted all season.

I did using the entire hull using 3M Finesse-It III and followed it up with 2 coats of Starbright and 3 coats of Meguires Flagship Premium (non cleaner, I think). The Starbright and Meguires were both very easy and fast to apply with the PC. Both were easy and fast to remove with microfiber towels by hand. I was able to use my bare hand and a hose to wash the hull all summer. No soap.

I had to (or maybe I just wanted to...) do a mid season repolish and wax on all of the white parts above the rub rail.

I'll polish and wax her in a couple of weeks (maybe days if the weather breaks and holds) for this year. :smt038

Holly smokes you wax more than I do, I did 3 coats 3m/Starbright/ 3m. 2 weekends... thats enough for me... for now :) I have plenty of therapy time with wax bonnette.
 
I used Meguires Flagship last year and I was very happy with the results, but with all the kudos to the Starbrite with PTEF (Teflon) polish I went ahead and bought some today. I hope it's as good as the reviews here say. West Marine has a sale going on now. B1G1 free for the 32oz bottle. 2 for 38.99. Cheapest I've found online.
 
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Holly smokes you wax more than I do, I did 3 coats 3m/Starbright/ 3m. 2 weekends... thats enough for me... for now :) I have plenty of therapy time with wax bonnette.

Believe it or not, I did all of that in just one weekend last spring. I used my neighbor's Horrible Freight rotary polisher with a big 3M 5723 pad on it for the Finesse It III. A spray bottle to mist the pad with water made this step super easy. It took about 4 hours to do the hull below the rub rail.

Applying and removing each coat of Starbright took about 30-40 minutes. I used a PC 7424 with a yellow Meguires pad to apply and a microfiber towel to wipe off. I switched to a tan Meguires finishing pad for the 3 coats of Flagship wax, again removing each with a MF towel.
I did all but the very last coat of wax on the first day. I applied the last coat of wax and did everything above the rub rail the next day.
 

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