Wacky Wednesday #5

I had heard great things about PoliGlow, and owned two full kits and the PoliOx bottle for a couple of years.  When, I finally got around to testing it on our black-hulled boat, I learned a few lessons:

1.  Use the PoliOx generously.  If you cover an automobile polisher (~$20 at Walmart, Target, etc.) with the powder, clean a no greater than a five foot section of hull.  I started with 15-20 feet...guess what? I had to go back again...and again...and, well, eventually I learned.

2.  Rinse.  If the hull does not look spotless, repeat step one.  Keep doing this until the wet hull looks EXACTLY like you want.  Otherwise, you will be re-doing it.  Trust me on this one.  There are still places I have to go back, remove the Glow, and re-Ox, not just re-Prep.  Oh, and make sure you rinse all the way down to the water.  It WILL eat paint.  Don't say I didn't warn you, not to mention the bottle too in big letters.  Luckily, I did read this so I managed to not remove any excess.

3.  Once you have the entire hull on one side completed, notice I said one side, then you are ready for the PoliPrep.  Do not try to do both sides at once, you will be repeating yourself later...

4.  For the PoliPrep, I put on come coveralls and goggles and hung out on a kayak with the buffer again.  Just make sure your power cord is fused and plugged into a GCA socket.  Here is the fun part...while using the buffer with one hand, keep the cord out of the water and fend yourself off of the hull with the other.  Yes, your arms get tired; your legs will too.  Luckily, our waterline was about the kayak height, so I wasn't bumping the clean hull area.  Again, five foot sections...notice a trend here?  Guess where else it states this?  Yep, the bottle.

5.  This is where I screwed up, and now laugh at myself.  I PoliOxed and PoliPreped the entire hull.  Then went to Glow.  Bad idea.  Ox one side at a time, Prep the entire side, then go back and re-Prep the first 5' section.  Once this dries (follow the time on the bottle), take out the sponge with the pad to Glow.  Again, you will be repeating a lot more if you don't listen to this...It is amazing how much junk can build up on a clean hull in the time it takes you to work five feet of it.

6.  For PoliGlow, use the big sponge...in your gloved hand.  I could see maybe trying to use it on a stick if you are hauled out, but the evenness of pressure really requires a hand.  Use the little piece of cloth to wipe any drips quickly.  It is fairly useless for anything else.  Five foot sections again...and overlap them.  It didn't seem to make a difference in how far the overlap was.  I did get better, cleaner coverage using the sponge vertically instead of horizontally.  This took a little longer to dry, but was worth it.

7.  Go do something else for ten minutes...or stare at polish drying.

8.  Repeat the Glow coat on the same five feet.

9.  Repeat steps 6-8 until you see the shine you want.  It took me about 5-10 coats depending on the part of the hull.  Ignore the coats amount on the bottle, use more (or fewer) until it looks like you want when it is dry.  Granted, we had not had anyone successfully de-ox it in years...many many years.

10. Move over five feet.  Repeat from step 5 for the next five feet.

While it takes a while, it is worth it.  The good lesson learned?  Nothing worth doing is easy.  I put in days vice the hours I had hoped for, and still had touch-up work to do where I had rushed.  However, on a hull that at least four "marine cleaners/handymen/guy on the docks" had tried to unsuccessfully clean/buff/polish, I can now see my reflection...in color...on a black hull.  Oh, and remember, make sure that the varnishing you did that morning is dry before pulling out the automobile buffer...just saying...you never know...