Care & feeding of Awlgrip?

[stormchaser]

I'm new to "painted" boats...all of my previous boats were Gelcoated. I was planning on using the same thing I used on those...good oldfashioned car "wash & wax" stuff. Like TurtleWax's "ZipWax":

Then plan on "waxing" it 1-2x per year with a good hydrophobic polymer type wax such as Meguire's NXT GENERATION TECH WAX® 2.0

But is that going to hurt/harm my boat? She was totally repainted with Awlgrip about 8-9 years ago...and the non-skid was just redone again the year before last. I am HOPING to make it last as long as possible...freakin expensive to redo. People think its either a new baot or at least a fresh paint-job and I want to keep it that way...thoughts?

 

[stormchaser]

Oops, forgot to sign up for email replies...

 

[jim rosenthal]

US Paint says don't use anything but their products. I think this is BS. However they are correct in that you should never compound or buff out Awlgrip; clean it up and either use Awlcare or, if you want to wax it, use Collinite paste. Woody Wax on decks is supposed to be very good as well.

If you have Awlcraft, which is their paint that CAN be buffed out, I imagine you can buff it and wax it. Any other thoughts?

 

[stormchaser]

Well, then I already screwed up. To get the "ghost" off the stern from the old name, I compounded it pretty heavily...how bad did I damage it?

Of course they "say" to only use their products...but that's got to be BS...

 

[Brian Degulis]

Awlgrip is diffrent than other paints. Just clean it don't wax or compound it will decrease it's like. When it gets old and faded you can compound and wax to keep it looking OK for a little longer but that's just a temporary measure that should never be done untill it's pretty well shot.

Brian

 

[ohiohatteras]

Had mine painted w/Awlgrip 3 years ago.....Been using Zip wax since day one and using Awlcare at the beginning of each season. I like the Awlcare too....except if you try to put it on in the spring in a damp storage barn. It seems to take forever to haze over. But other than that, it's real easy to work with and lasts fairly well. The boat still shines like it did on the first day.

 

[Brian Degulis]

Well, then I already screwed up. To get the "ghost" off the stern from the old name, I compounded it pretty heavily...how bad did I damage it?

Of course they "say" to only use their products...but that's got to be BS...

You probably removed some resin layer which is what gives the paint it's shine. You will probably notice that that after a while that area loses some shine and will require waxing in order to bring it back to the rest of the boat. Awlgrip is diffrent than other urethanes like Imron that can be polished. In simple terms with Imron the shine is in the paint. With Awlgrip the shine is a resin layer on top of the paint if you compound all of that resin layer off the paint no longer shines. If you compound some of it off the paint shines less the resin layer is very hard so how much you took off depends how much compounding you did and how much paint was put on when the boat was painted.

Brian

 

[bdewar]

Awlcare works well. If you apply 2-3 times you can see yourself in 10 year old paint. I Got the best results by wiping the surface with acetone before appling the Awlcare. Do it by hand.