Is polish wax, or is wax polish, or is polish polish and wax, wax?

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rosssavage

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Right, boat out in two weeks, new polisher bought, got some Farecla G10 but now I'm a bit confused.

Established (i.e. forum) wisdom suggests gentle cut with Farecla, then polish, then wax.

Problem is, most of the products I can find seem to be a combined polish and wax (Farecla Ultimate UV Wax Polish, for example.. Meguiars do a similar thing).

Now as the boat is out of the water and hull access is easy, I want to make sure I get a good finish that will last a reasonable amount of time - I don't mind multiple applications (e.g. polish twice, wax twice etc..) but where do I find a polishing polish and a waxing wax, or are these combined products as good if a couple of applications are applied?

I know polishing has been done to death on these fora before, but I can't seem to find an answer to this question...

Ta muchly :)
 
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Maybe it's a terminology thing and better to think of it as follows:

Cut: get the deeply ingrained muck out the GRP with a course compound and hard foam pad
Polish: bring out the shine with a fine compound and a foam pad
Wax: protect all that hard work by sealing the surface with a few coats of wax by hand, bonnet or soft foam pad
 
In my opinion combined polish + wax is useless. Waxing is generally pretty easy with a good decent wax (right now I use Chemical Guys). Combining it into one product with polish makes it neither as good as pure polish in "cutting" nor as good as pure wax for a protective layer.

Generally if the gel coat is in good condition a polish followed by wax should bring it up well. If there is bad chaulking occurring then follow oGaryo's 3 step process above.

I do like Farecla products and I have tried the combined polish and wax (again not the best product). Try get a regular polish/light cutting compound from Farecla and finish it off with their Ultimate UV Wax. For mid season top off try their quick wax.
 
Most waxes actually have a very small amount of compound in them to enable you to remove small stains and marks etc when waxing.

For all intents and purposes though most recognised waxes are effectively just that.
I've used (in no particular order) Starbrite wax with Teflon, Mer, Auto Glym, Farecla marine polish with uv protection, and Bilt Hamber over the years.
I class all these as waxes.

They all seem to perform similarly so I now choose the one that's nicest to use - Auto Glym. A couple of coats of that followed by 2 coats of Top Gloss protection on top.

Meguirs seems to be widely used and praised by others, although I haven't tried it as yet as I've vowed to empty my shelves of all the existing stocks before I buy any more. Given my experience of all the waxes I've used to date all being about the same I personally don't hold out much expectation that Meguirs is going to be any better, although I fully expect others to follow and say it's the best ever etc. I'm reserving judgment until I've tried it.
 
rosssavage said:
Right, boat out in two weeks, new polisher bought, got some Farecla G10 but now I'm a bit confused.

Established (i.e. forum) wisdom suggests gentle cut with Farecla, then polish, then wax.

Problem is, most of the products I can find seem to be a combined polish and wax (Farecla Ultimate UV Wax Polish, for example.. Meguiars do a similar thing).

Now as the boat is out of the water and hull access is easy, I want to make sure I get a good finish that will last a reasonable amount of time - I don't mind multiple applications (e.g. polish twice, wax twice etc..) but where do I find a polishing polish and a waxing wax, or are these combined products as good if a couple of applications are applied?

I know polishing has been done to death on these fora before, but I can't seem to find an answer to this question...

Ta muchly :)
Click to expand...

Compound is what you do with a really aweful finish, or as you start to finish off a gel repair job. Being sort of aggressive, you dont want to keep taking off gel when you dont need to.
Polish is sort of a very fine compound, but each brand has its own set of polish/finishing lotions, so it is a bit tricky to say one ofr the other. G10 is primarily for car finishing, but Farecla do make a marine range.
You dont need to stick with a single brand, but it does make it easier to know if you need to go more or less aggressive and which product to then use.
On the whole, just like home decorating, the better the preparation, the better the finish, and from my limited experience, getting the surface well prepared pays much bigger dividends than using this or that.
On those lines, this isnt a quick process, but there is of course a market for a quick solution, and hence these two in one products. Professional opinion seems to be that they are aweful, but then maybe you dont wan to spend days polishing th boat anyway;)
Assuming that you have a proper polisher, along the lines of the Silverline polisher (that is the MINIMUM) then get some proper wool bonnets (3m seems to be No 1, but you also need a backing plate), or some DECENT sponges from somewhere like clearyourcar.co.uk (you still need a backing plate). Actually, I would then spend the £50 a get a matching range from 3m or farecla.. you wont use them all in one season anyway..
Lastly, when all is super gleaming and shiny, you add wax to seal it.
A good guide here
http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=117266

If you look back through the threads, I have put up one of the sailing magazine links to a review of polishes ,waxes etc.
3M actually have pretty good prices, direct, though their web pages are damn confusing
Imperial compound and finishing seems all time favourite- I think the compound breaks down as you use it into a finishing material. Dont mix polish and wax, I think is the motto, even if they make it ;)
http://www.3mdirect.co.uk/search.aspx?searchterm=marine

Edit.. a comment on wax.. this you do by hand , on and off, so using one that is EASY to use is a real bonus. It also means you dont mind doing it as a touch up , now and again.
I have been using mcguires flagship which, with a well prepared surface, seems to last very well, but this season I am going to go all 3M as no one ever seems to have a bad word to say about them !
 
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oGaryo said:
Cut: get the deeply ingrained muck out the GRP with a course compound and hard foam pad
Click to expand...

I don't claim any expertise in this, but I've read a number of times people who seem to know what they're talking about say don't start using compound until you've really thoroughly washed as much of the dirt and grime off as possible, otherwise you're just grinding it further into the gelcoat.
 
Spent a few weekends recently polishing & waxing my boat, I am sure there are as many opinions on which products are the best as there are product.
FWIW I used 3m imperial finishing compound as the polish, luckily the gel coat was in good condition so only needed to go over the hull once. Applied with a Silverline polisher and a soft foam pad. This was filled by 2 coats of 3m carnauba hard wax hand applied.
The finish was good enough to shave in (well almost lol).
I should add that you will only get a good shine if the polishing stage is done right, hard work but well worth it when you step back & see your gleaming pride & joy
 
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