TOPIC: penetrol on american marc cat

I have seen a couple of post on this stuff , My boat has some light fading and oxidation, I just don't want to start a long sanding process if this stuff will get me the same end results. any suggestions?

It all depends on what you personally think looks good or not. For me, Penetrol is a no - go. There is only one way to revive gelcoat, and there are no shortcuts. I use a special rubbing compound from starbrite that is amazing. It breaks down as you are using it, so the polinshing compounds get smaller & smaller, leaving a nice sheen to the gelcoat. Just do small sections at a time, that way is not so painful. After this, wax the boat with Carnuba paste wax. To maintain the color & sheen is a little more interesting. Keep the boat covered & out of the weather (especially the sun) Don't use any sort of detergent or soap on the boat, just water & towel it off. Detergents & soaps will strip the oils from the gelcoat & it will go dull. My special secret is to wipe any light bodied oil all over the boat before putting it away. An old timer showed this to me & regardless of what you might think, it WORKS. Wipe a light film of oil on & leave it on, don't remove it. It will be important to then cover the boat, because if you don't insects & dust will make a mess out of it. When you want to use the boat, get a can of WD 40 & lightly mist a small area, then buff it off dry with a clean rag. Do this to the whole boat before taking it out. This step is necessary to soften & remove the excess oil that was left on the boat when you put it away. You will be impressed with the result & this will greatly reduce the need to buff the gelcoat. Remember that our boats are plastic, and what does plastic start out as? OIL.

Here is a pic of my Skagit that I have maintained in this way. The boat has its original gelcoat, which was badly oxidized and pink when I got it. And no, you can't skip the rubbing compound & waxing, because if you do, this process won't do you any good. This is to maintain the shine that you get from all that hard work.

Bruce

If you don't plan on painting over the gelcoat and don't want to rub it all out. You can try this get any real thing oil and rub the boat down with it Then take a towel and rub off all the oil you can. The color and shine will come back. When it starts to look dull do it again. Its a cheeters way of doing it but will get you by.
Learned this from and old car salesmen.They used to use just motor oil and make and old car paint job look almost like new till the buyer washed it.
Mike aka pathfinderz1
PS
I do this to mine

This is bring back memories. When I was well drilling. I used a damp rag and diesel fuel on the rigs and equipment, never thought about gelcoat. Thanks. old darb

my dad used oil on his car when he was young in the 50s ,mom said it looked great until they drove down a dirt road,lol.

I haven't seen to many lakes that are dusty. I think that is why most outboards don't have air filters.
Mike aka pathfinderz1

mike i was just making a joke about when my dad was young,but the roads to the lake can be dusty.

Mike,
You have never been on Lake Lahonton, when the wind blows, or the Sacramento River, when they are tilling the fields?
How far off topic can we get?
old darb

O I have been on Lake Lahonton Its only 20 miles down the road from me. I live in Dayto NV and I have been out on the water and got cought in a big wind waves 3 and 4 feet In a 10 1/2 foot alumimum. Don't ever want to do that again. Needless to say it was scary. Now back to how to shine a boat.

well this is what I did , I looked around my garage and found some turtle wax polishing compound and some rubbing compound, the rubbing compound was a little to much but the polishing compound was just right, all I was trying to do was blend in some spots where I removes some tape and grip tape type of stuff . I went over the whole boat ( I am kinda anal) . Then my next step was penetrol , but the way I used it was on a scotch pad , I soaked the scotch pad and lightly went back and fourth , I think the penetrol is really good at putting oil back into the gelcoat as it has gotten dry from sun. Anyway i did the whole boat , it was easy and the results were nothing less than steller. you can't see where any of the tape or stickers were before. My next step was to go to the auto parts store and pick up some wax , I did auto detailing for a brief period and was familiar with meguire's h7 this is more of a polish than a wax and it has a lot of oil in it , it is what I used to use on red or black painted cars to remove swirl marks, And all I can say is WOW WOW WOW !!!!! this boat is now gleaming like it just came of the showroom floor.I tried to take some pictures but was getting to much glare !!! i will do so later when it's in the shade . My next step will be a wax , but at this point I don't think I will really need it. You can toss a cloth on the bow and it just flies of the other side..