Which one.. Polish with what?

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Over the past few years, I've started to gather quite a collection of cleaning supplies, polishing compounds, and waxes. Having a yellow boat has accelerated this collection. This being the third year with Woodstock I've had the opportunity to try three different polishing compounds head to head. 


The first two years I used 3M Heavy oxidation remover followed up with their Finesse Polish. The first year I went over this with the 3M paste wax and the second I used Turtle Wax. I personally feel the Turtle Wax held up better and gave a nicer shine. 

This spring I decided to give something else a try and ordered some Total Boat after watching Andy at Boatworks. If you have not seen his youtube channel you should check it out.  This is a two-part product as well Total Buff and Total Shine. 

My father also came by this year and he has been using the Mcguires Products on his boats and camper. So we gave them a head-to-head comparison on the yellow hull. While the Mcguires was good it did not leave as nice a shine as the Total Boat products. Total Boat is for sure the way to go in my case. It goes on easy and polishes off leaving a nice mirror shine.  This is for sure the nicest my boat has looked. I went over it all with Turtle Wax after all I need to use up some of this stuff I have laying around. Next year I will likely get the Total Boat Wax if it is as good as their polish I can't imagine it will disappoint. 


 

One other new product I tried out this year is the Pettit EZ-Fair.  I have been using West System for years and really like their new products in calking tubes. They don't put their fairing compound in tubes yet and I saw this Pettit product. With all the filling I've been doing I thought I might give it a try. It is for sure a good product.  It squeezes out nicely and is easy to mix and use. This is super nice because you don't end up wasting a lot of product.  The downside is it is a lot harder to sand than the West System with 410 mixed into it.  I can see using this again on small projects but anything that would require a fine finish with multiple coats I would for sure stick to the West System. West is easier to sand and I feel you can get better results especially and you get down into the higher grit sandpapers. 

Location: Michigan, USA

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