My boat is not shiny!
 

I have a 1997 198SE Shabah that I bought a couple of years ago in Ontario. I really like the boat and I love the looks of it but no matter how much elbow grease I give her, or what polish I use, I cannot get a really nice sheen, especially on sides at the back of the hull. It must be oxidized really deep (if that is possible.) I see other photos of Mariahs and they have a really nice shine. Suggestions?

Meguiars Fiberglass Restoration Kit. (pic below)

I used it on mine and got amazing results. Takes a little work, and if yours is oxidized really bad, might need a few coats and a buffer, but even hand-applying mine, it worked wonders for my gelcoat, and gave me an amazing shine.

If you've tried this, and haven't had any luck, there's two products called Poliglow, and Vertglass that might be what you're looking for.

The other option is to go through and wet sand the entire gelcoat, essentially sanding out the oxidized gelcoat and then, once finished sanding, buffing out all the scratches from the sand paper. This will bring out the original gel coat. I would not suggest doing this yourself and would only do it as a last resort. I have a fiberglass guy that i use to do work such as this if need be. He said you can sand and polish about 5 times before you will have to re-gelcoat the boat.

Just an idea incase the ideas that ShabahZ250 suggested don't work.

I had the same problem when I first purchased my z222. 1) use 3M rubbing compound (the beige one for Marine use) rub on, rub off. 2) use maguires marine polish, rub on, buff to a shine 3)finally- use a good carnuba wax - I used 3M, worked great. It was a lot of work but my boat looks great. A good marina will have all these products.

The 3 step process of power buffing with 2 polishes and then pure wax will bring finishes back to life. However, not all of them. Most of these boats have a clear coat over the color. If the clear coat is sun damaged or crystallized, it won't shine. My boat had issues like that from the rubstrip up. I worked and worked with the most abrasive stuff in the Meguiars kit. It was smoother, but not shiny.

For the most part, the Meguiars 3 step kit put a heck of a shine on the boat. But some of it was beyond repair. I ended up having it painted from the rubstrip up and it turned out great!

Thread moved because this is more about waxing and general maintenance stuff rather than something specific to an Original Mariah.

Meguiars #10 (yes, for plastic) applied with a damp cloth and then wiped off, also does a great job of keeping up with the Gel Coat shine. Per my repair guy, this can/should be done after each outing. Water spots wipe right off (I liked the way diluted Vinegar worked, but was told it also cut into the life of the Gel Coat).

Fixed my oxidized finish
 

We've kept the boat in the water at the lake for the past two years (big mistake) and I spent all day today working on the exterior finish.

I first used 3M Rubbing compound - I buffed it on using an orbital waxer/polisher and then wiped off with terry cloths. (Costco had a bundle of 60!) This really cleaned up the 'old' looking finish with the exception of the waterline and the top edge which remained stained and yellowed.

I decided to throw caution to the wind and wet-sanded with really great results! I was able to wet sand out all the yellowed areas to the point the gelcoat looks new.

The last step was applying by hand Maguiars wax and then I hand-buffed to a shine. I am not quite complete as I still need to finish cleaning parts of the bottom of the boat; it will have to wait until later as it is supposed to snow tonight or tomorrow morning!

Thanks for the tip on the 3M rubbing compound, worked great. I now need to decide how brave I am to repair one small cut down to the fiberglass and a dozen scratches where the gelcoat needs repair. We'll see how brave I feel this winter.

Brent

Great looking boat Brent!!