Step by Step cleaning/waxing a hill

What products do you use? What materials do you use?

My hull is really dirty from last year, so its all cacked on from last summer, so I need to clean and wax the hull this spring.

Any tips/advice? Not looking for showroom condition, just clean.

Dang!! I thought this thread was going to be about waxing a hill. I guess I'll have to wait.

found that Mary Kate On and Off cleaner worked amazing for me. It is only $12/quart and 1 quart will clean boat a few times. Mine was dirty and had a waterline stain, this stuff i wiped on then sprayed off that easy. It is pretty stout stuff need to wear gloves and not get on metal, but beats the heck out of using a orbital buffer for hours on end. Literally cleaned one whole side of my boat in 2 mins. Then used Meguiars NXT wax looks better than new. And it is a black boat.

p.s. get the newer gel formula

(Message edited by e_in_tn on May 23, 2009)

where do you pick it up from?

Is the mary kate stuff specific to boats or a general cleaner?

http://www.marsupco.com/Mary_Kate_ON_OFF_Hull_Cleane_P19209C5050.cfm

Scrub scum immediately after taking boat out of water with brush and mild detergent (laundry / dish / car). Actually it is probably easiest to do while boat is in water. If it dries it is 10x harder. If it is stained, you can use a hull cleaner, but hull cleaners are acid base, so use gloves and rinse off immediately. Instead of a hull cleaner you can use a toilet bowl cleaner, also acid. I have used Meguairs (sp?) and Sea Sense teflon wax and both seemed to work well.

gonna try the toilet bowl cleaner, thanks!

Well I went today looking for the listed toilet bowl cleaners with no luck, so instead of risking it I bought a Starbrite boat cleaning kit.

It came with
-Starbrite Hull Cleaner
-Starbrite Boat Soap
-Starbrite Polish
-Plastic container to mix soap
-Sponge

It was listed for $20, which is still a steal since the polish alone was almost that price, but when I scanned it at the checkout it rang in @ $7.

I am very impressed with the hull cleaner. I had not washed my hull last year so all the crap was stuck on over winter, but that stuff works amazingly well. Spray on, wait 5 minutes, take a sponge to work the stubborn stuff and it cleaned the yellow parts of the hull right back to the original white.

Now I need to work on some of the oxidization on the red paint on the side of the boat. Anyone reccomnend a product for that?

3m rubbing compound and a buffer. shines it up. hit with a polish and wax after.

This may sound ghetto but anyone tried Vaseline?

I was searching around and someone used vaseline on their boat, and within 10 minutes it brought back the original shine and made it look new again. Granted it would probably only last as long as the vaseline coating is on the boat..

Matt
First you should be ashamed you put your boat away DIRTY! There is NO miracle product to overcome abuse. The best cleaner is the one that gets used regularly. Your boat should never be
[cacked up] .

Thanks for your 2cents Michael, but I wasn't looking for a lecture.

The boat was bought used, with oxidized paint on the side, so the only thing that was really my fault was not washing it, but if you read above, the Starbrite hull cleaner did an amazing job, no complaints here.

Matt - Where did you get the starbright kit for $7. Even at $20 it is still worth it so i was hoping to be able to take advantage.

Canadian Tire

haha nice!

I used meguiars glaze for making my colours more vibrant.... (black) with a polishing pad and my makita angle grinder....

Then fished off the whole boat with Meguiars high-tech yellow paste wax.

polished by hand... bottom, sides, top....

Whole process took about 4 hours... me and my brother..

Ice by turtle wax works incredible