Practical Sailor's gear and boat reviews take the guesswork out of your buying decisions.

Volume 30
Number 7
April 1, 2004

Gelcoat Restoration: Back From the Dead

We used hull restorers from Vertglas, Poli-Glow, and New Glass-2 to revive a beaten and battered powerboat, and included Collinite’s Fiberglass Boat Wax as part of the test, too.

Top-rated hull restorers are shown above. Their thin acrylic film coatings bring a high-gloss sheen to a gelcoat. They do require meticulous preparation and application, and can be tough to remove. From left to right: Poli Glow, Vertglas and New Glass-2.

In the January 1 issue, we reported the beginning of a long-term wax test. Included is a product called Poli Glow , which is actually not a wax but a "hull restorer" that has tested well for us before, and that continues to get good reviews from readers.

Then we decided it was time to face off the hull restorers again. Initially, we were going to stick to restorers only, but Nick Buchanan, proprietor of Scuba-Do Yacht Detailers in Sarasota, FL, assured us that he could bring back a fiberglass gelcoat the old-fashioned way, with wax. So we decided to include a wax, too, thus making sort of a mirror-image…

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