Deatailing questions

[gjetzen]

Will Aerospace 303 protectant bring back the color and shine to an old slightly sun faded Filon gelcoated Monty? If not what would recommend.

[awaywego]

You need to use a good cleaner to remove the oxidation. Make sure it is clear coat safe. If it is real dull you may have to clean more than once then polish with a good polish. Try to keep it off the decals.

[8.1al]

This has worked well for me with conditions like you described
http://www.nufinish.com/car-care/car-wax-vs-car-polish

[Captain Joe]

I use only Meguires for RVs/Boats. #44 is a color restorer, #49 is an oxidation remover, and #50 is a one step cleaner and polisher. After is is all done, use #56 Pure Wax. Be careful with the #44, it is strong stuff.

[gjetzen]

Thanks all for the advice

[Hooker]

Go to a boat dealer and tell him what you want to do. Nothing gets faded like a boat sitting in salt water 24/7...year after year.

On edit...to answer your question, 303 is good stuff, but it will not bring back faded fiberglass.

[JandC]

We owned a 1990 yacht for over 10 years and the gel coat had faded badly. The finish would not take wax and every time I washed it the water run off looked like milk. I talked to numerous "boating experts" for several years and tried numerous buffing products. Finally after moving to a new marina in Michigan we became friends with a couple that had a mid sixties vessel that looked brand new. Through his instructions I did the following: wet sanded the entire exterior and then buffed it with EagerBuff. It is a compound made in Chicago. Then I waxed it. My 1990 then looked brand new also! This winter while in Florida I will be removing most of my decals and doing the same thing to our Monte, even though the finish on it isn't nearly as bad as our old boat was. It is a lot of work but the finish comes out like the finish on a brand new car.

[gjetzen]

This is an update to my original post. I wanted to thank everyone for their advice on how to get the Monty "like new" shiny again. So here is what I did. Day 1 I took some Zep vinyl siding cleaner and mixed it 8oz to 1 gallon of water into a garden sprayer, I soaked the trailer with water then sprayed the Zep mixture to one side and let it penetrate for 5 minutes. After the 5 min I scrubbed it with a soft bristle brush then rinsed. I repeated this for all sides. Then a wash down with Zip Wax. Day 2 I used NuFinish as per 8.1al recommendation. The curb side and the rear cap take the least amount of weather and they came out perfect, the street side and front cap on the other hand take almost all the weather they turned just ok. This is also the side that the graphics are bad. I waited about a week and then applied a second coat of new finish to the street side and front cap. The street side came out almost perfect, while the front cap looks good to get it any better I think it will need machine buffed. All in all it turned our very nice. The curb side is like new and the street side is pretty close. As we would say in Pittsburgh, "You'll never notice the difference from East Ohio Street".

[Tom S.]

I've used Nu-Finish since it was introduced decades ago. Since then, I've tried other products including Meguires (which is good stuff too), but I've never found anything that was better than Nu-Finish.

[nosticks]

Just don't use any of the floor wax solutions that will be recommended as the greatest thing to come along since canned Spam.

[gjetzen]

nosticks, what happens if you use floor wax?

[psomers]

I have never used the Zep floor products so take this for what it's worth. On the IRV2 forum under vintage rv topic there are hundreds that swear by the Zep wet look on a really faded rv. This is only when every thing else has been failed to produce desired results.

[gjetzen]

Maybe there was a misunderstanding, I didn't use Zep floor wax I used Zep vinyl siding cleaner to wash the Monty.