Will Your Products Remove Old Products like Poliglow?

Skipper July 16, 2007 Ask The Skipper

Barry Dwyer asked:

I treated my boat with Poliglow 2 years ago and while I was somewhat pleased with the results, I think the hull could look better. My boat is a 1978 so there is a significant amount of oxidation. Hopefully by following the steps you have outlined with your products, she will shine a little more.
Will Your Products Remove Old Products like Poliglow?

Answer:
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Acrylic clear coats are not easily reversible. When you apply them, they require aggressive cleansers and scuffing of the gelcoat to get the proper adhesion. Stripping off the acrylic clear coat will reveal the damage to your gelcoat, which you will have to restore with sanding and compounding before you can use traditional polishes again. This is providing you have enough gelcoat left to restore. If your boat finish has been compounded or sanded in the past, you may not have enough gelcoat left

Acrylic clear coats are normally used on older boats in need of refinishing. This a temporary stop gap solution which will give you a couple of years of better shine before you have to bite the bullet and refinish. When carefully and properly applied the results can be good, if not the results are disastrous; cracking, yellowing, streaking, peeling, etc. and are hard to fix.

If you wish to remove the coating, contact the manufacturer for their recommended remover. The clear coat formulas differ slightly from manufacturer to manufacturer and they each have their preferred stripping material and method. Clear coat stripping can be tough tedious work so if you intend to refinish anyway, you may want to break out the sandpaper and skip the stripping step.

Professional refinishers find that it is easier and faster to wet sand the clear coat off rather than using the strippers. Afterwards they use several grades of rubbing compound, starting at coarse and going to fine to get the shine back. Unless you have good skills and ample gelcoat left, beware of using this procedure yourself as you can cause even more damage to your finish.

If you are happy with your clear coat finish, I suggest that you try to maintain it until you are ready to refinish.

Sorry I don’t have an easy solution for you, but this type of finish is a one way street.

Thanks for your question,
Captain Aurora