My first wax job........

[WiskyDan]

After reading through several wax/polish related threads I had my heart set on having my hull cleaned, apply a non-wax polish, and then seal with Rejex. As with many of the plans that I come up with, they did not survive for long. I have my boat at a dry stack facility about an hour from my home and while they are pretty accommodating I can’t leave my boat sitting on a bunk in their yard for an extended amount of time. Plus with the way that the sun rises this time of year (in relation to their building that I was using for shade) and the recent heat wave I was going to have a hard time doing this in a single day where the sun/heat didn‘t become a factor. I figured that I could wait until the end of the season but I really wanted to get something on the boat since I have no idea when the last owner had waxed it. After some hemming and hawing, I decided to go with a one step solution in the short term and then do a more thorough job once it’s out of the water at the end of the season before it goes into storage. The temps will be more agreeable and since I’ll have it in my driveway I won’t feel as rushed to get it done all in one shot.

So, I bought the following:

• A cordless Riyobi 10" random orbital polisher for $45 - I got a good deal on a Riyobi 18v battery starter kit a couple weeks ago when I bought a cordless inflator/deflator for my towable so adding more cordless Riyobi tools are cost effective.
• An electric 6" random orbital polisher from Harbor Freight which was on sale for $14.
• Two bottles of Star Brite Premium Cleaner Wax.

I had the dry stack place where I keep it clean the hull on Friday and I arrived a little before 6:00am Saturday morning to get to work. I used the 6" polisher with a terry cloth cover to apply, the 10" polisher with a fleece cover (looks like wool) to buff/remove, and a microfiber towel to remove any residue that the 10" didn't remove after it loaded up a bit. I was a bit surprised that the buffing cover loaded up so quick and left quite a bit of residue that I had to remove by hand with the microfiber towel. I maybe I used too much wax or the fleece cover was a crappy quality - it was from Harbor Freight.

I did above and below the waterline (a bit around the anchor storage compartment where I could reach) and finished up at about 9:30am as the sun was climbing. This coming weekend I will go back and do the interior to finish it off. I was pretty pleased with the way that my first wax job turned out but the port side looks better than the starboard side. I wanted to get something on the boat quickly and when I pull it out of the water in September I will bring it home before it goes into storage which will give me more time to do a more thorough job.

 

[Babin Farms]

That looks GREAT!!!!

 

[WiskyDan]

Thank you, the port side turned out pretty well. The starboard side has some small gelcoat scuffs in the red portion of the hull that I’m going to have to deal with.

 

[Babin Farms]

Thank you, the port side turned out pretty well. The starboard side has some small gelcoat scuffs in the red portion of the hull that I’m going to have to deal with.

When I did mine I had to remind myself that it's a 11yr old used boat, otherwise I would have just kept going with trying to make it look new. Just have to say "close enough" sometimes

 

[WiskyDan]

That’s a good point, it has a couple of small battle scars but overall it’s in good shape for a 14 year old boat. I’m going to do all I can to keep it as nice as possible - I take care of my stuff.