Waxing

I have a 10 year old fiberglass coach and I use Aerospace #303 on the fiberglass! If you have decals on your fiberglass Do Not Use rubbing compound on them! Aerospace #303 is a water based protectant (Boeing Airplane Company uses it to shine up all there aircraft) 10 times easier to use on fiberglass than any paste wax! It will bring back the luster in your paint and it works best if you apply every 3 to 4 months. I do short sections at different times instead of doing everything at once. There is no way I'm putting a paste wax on my fiberglass! A salesperson for the dealer where I bought my coach told me he uses pledge furniture wax on his fiberglass! I tried it once and it didn't work for me! Good Luck in whatever you choose to use!

Question. Does this hardwood flooring polish Zep. Bring back the original color, or just make the washed out surface shine? Cause as I am waxing my TT today, and every time I wax a vehicle. I can see that not only am I making it shine. But I am returning it to the original color, almost 2 shades worth, and taking out scratches as well. Does Zep remove the scratches too?

2bzy2c wrote:

For what it is worth, if the Zep didn't work, there is a stripper you can use. Wipe it on, hose it off. Zep is gone.

Have you used the stripper?

rgatijnet1 wrote:

2bzy2c wrote:

4,000 sq ft of sanding is simply too much for many.

For sanding the fiberglass sides, front, and rear caps, then you are closer to 900 sq. ft. Three or four coats of ZEP adds up to 2700 to 3600 sq ft of work also, plus the prep so there is not much of a labor savings.

Really? No labor savings? Sorry, but I have to disagree with you.

It is obvious you have never used Zep, or you would not have made that statement. I did a 32' Class A (not the roof). It took one person one day...granted a full day. Most of that was spent scrubbing the caulking around the openings to make certain they were white and clean.

The four coats of Zep took maybe 10 minutes per side. It is simply a wiping motion. No rubbing, buffing or worst of all, no sanding.

To sand and put a finish coat of wax on 900-1000 sq ft of surface area (3 to four times), would take one person at least 40 hours of labor. (Just a guess, since I have never done it, but it has to be really labor intensive). What do you have when you are done? A shiny surface, just like the Zep. Maybe to a purest, it is a sin to use a shortcut like Zep, but the results are simply amazing.

For what it is worth, if the Zep didn't work, there is a stripper you can use. Wipe it on, hose it off. Zep is gone.

brirene wrote:

Terryallan wrote:

rgatijnet1 wrote:

hershey wrote:
Meguires is an excellent wax and all I would ever use on my '57 Ford. But for a 14 year old dull MH, the Red Max (now Zep) process is the only thing left to give showroom results. Mine is on now for 3 years and I've had to redo the front cap twice (I;m pretty agressive on the bugs) and the entry door once (poor preparation on first attempt).
Suggest you do a search for Red Max Pro on this forum and decide. The only people who poo poo it is the people who haven't tried it.
I would not use it on a full bodied RV. Common sense should prevail.

What a load of BS.
Here we have a fiberglass repair tech posting the right way to bring the shine back to a new finish and still the floor wax people think that their coating is better than the "real thing."
You talk about how you have had to redo some areas and about poor prep and here is an expert telling you how it should be done, and you still say he has no common sense because you have used an interior floor product instead of doing the job right.
The facts are that common sense does keep SOME people from making a mistake. In your case, common sense failed, and you went with what you thought was the easy way out and you had to redo it twice in the last three years. Do it right....do it once.

Me, I don't care. there is a reason I wax my vehicles, and take care of the GelCoat and paint.

However. For $100.00 per hour. I'll make the OPs look like new. It really blows my mind that people pay all this money for a nice RV, and then never take to the time to care for it, Or want to do it the "EASY" way. Got more money than sense I guess. But then. That's why the repair guy has a nice house, and his stuff always looks like new. Last summer I sold a 10 year old TT. And it looked as good as it did the day it was built. First people I told about it bought it. Their friends accused them of buying a brand NEW TT. Taking care of things ain't all that tough. Fixing them is way tougher.

Lol...you guys be careful not to fall off those well maintained pedestals you've got yourselves on. Wouldn't want you to have to come in contact with all us silly, lazy fools down here. :R Happy trails!

Pedestal? Nope. Just normal care, and maintenance. See. I can't afford to pay someone like me to fixup the TT. I cost too much. Its the same reason I replace the TT tires every 4 years. I don't like changing tires on the side of the road.

On the other hand. IF you don't maintain yours. You WILL come into contact with someone like me. And you might end up sending his kids to college.

I really don't understand paying tens / hundreds, of thousands for RVs, and letting them go. That is the reason some CGs have the 10 year rule. But then. Neglect your RV, and it will look like******in 2. And I guess you will be putting "spic, and span" or hard wood flooring polish on the paint

Terryallan wrote:

rgatijnet1 wrote:

hershey wrote:
Meguires is an excellent wax and all I would ever use on my '57 Ford. But for a 14 year old dull MH, the Red Max (now Zep) process is the only thing left to give showroom results. Mine is on now for 3 years and I've had to redo the front cap twice (I;m pretty agressive on the bugs) and the entry door once (poor preparation on first attempt).
Suggest you do a search for Red Max Pro on this forum and decide. The only people who poo poo it is the people who haven't tried it.
I would not use it on a full bodied RV. Common sense should prevail.

What a load of BS.
Here we have a fiberglass repair tech posting the right way to bring the shine back to a new finish and still the floor wax people think that their coating is better than the "real thing."
You talk about how you have had to redo some areas and about poor prep and here is an expert telling you how it should be done, and you still say he has no common sense because you have used an interior floor product instead of doing the job right.
The facts are that common sense does keep SOME people from making a mistake. In your case, common sense failed, and you went with what you thought was the easy way out and you had to redo it twice in the last three years. Do it right....do it once.

Me, I don't care. there is a reason I wax my vehicles, and take care of the GelCoat and paint.

However. For $100.00 per hour. I'll make the OPs look like new. It really blows my mind that people pay all this money for a nice RV, and then never take to the time to care for it, Or want to do it the "EASY" way. Got more money than sense I guess. But then. That's why the repair guy has a nice house, and his stuff always looks like new. Last summer I sold a 10 year old TT. And it looked as good as it did the day it was built. First people I told about it bought it. Their friends accused them of buying a brand NEW TT. Taking care of things ain't all that tough. Fixing them is way tougher.

Lol...you guys be careful not to fall off those well maintained pedestals you've got yourselves on. Wouldn't want you to have to come in contact with all us silly, lazy fools down here. :R Happy trails!

Every couple of years, this topic bubbles back to the surface and it always surprises me just how much emotion seems to come with it, especially from those who have not actually used it themselves. Why this should be, I can't begin to guess.

So, again, here is my own firsthand experience -- with PROs and CONs, and before-and-after pictures:


PROs
1. EASY - I had two strikes against me when I started this project: First, as a youngster, I was lazy and disliked anything resembling hard work. Second, the passage of seven decades has now made me a cantankerous old geezer, who hates manual labor even more. While this job is lengthy, it is not strenuous; nor does it demand speed, you can proceed at a leisurely pace. The most arduous task is the initial wash, and that depends on the initial state of the coach's gelcoat. No buffing, no rubbing. Just wipe on a thin, watery coating.
2. CHEAP - Another of my failings: I am a cheapskate. A $20 gallon of ZEP will do my 38-footer, with almost half remaining.

CONs
1. NOT PERMANENT - In constant sunlight, it looked great for about two full years, but the gloss virtually disappeared over the next six months.
2. NOT PEFECT - a really close inspection will reveal slight surface waviness in the gloss, unlike the mirror-smooth finish of hand-rubbed wax/polish.

RESULTs - it looks wonderful!

Many people who have told me that my 20-year old coach looks like brand new. Not a single one has ever added, "...except it doesn't look as good as a hand-rubbed job."

I just re-coated my coach after 3.5 years, but this time the preparation was a simple washing. I did not notice any yellowing, and I did not strip the old wax. In areas that were not hit by the sun, a single coat restored the shine.

Here is my original post with all the info (and pictures) about the ZEP process (previously called "Red Max Pro").

Not all gel coats are equal. Most boats have a better gel coat than most MH front and rear caps. My BIL worked in a fiberglass shop and said there is a big difference and price in gel coats. Once the caps start oxidizing, they usually do no come back without a very large amount of work, and even than, they do not stay for much more than a year.

rgatijnet1 wrote:

hershey wrote:
Meguires is an excellent wax and all I would ever use on my '57 Ford. But for a 14 year old dull MH, the Red Max (now Zep) process is the only thing left to give showroom results. Mine is on now for 3 years and I've had to redo the front cap twice (I;m pretty agressive on the bugs) and the entry door once (poor preparation on first attempt).
Suggest you do a search for Red Max Pro on this forum and decide. The only people who poo poo it is the people who haven't tried it.
I would not use it on a full bodied RV. Common sense should prevail.

What a load of BS.
Here we have a fiberglass repair tech posting the right way to bring the shine back to a new finish and still the floor wax people think that their coating is better than the "real thing."
You talk about how you have had to redo some areas and about poor prep and here is an expert telling you how it should be done, and you still say he has no common sense because you have used an interior floor product instead of doing the job right.
The facts are that common sense does keep SOME people from making a mistake. In your case, common sense failed, and you went with what you thought was the easy way out and you had to redo it twice in the last three years. Do it right....do it once.

Me, I don't care. there is a reason I wax my vehicles, and take care of the GelCoat and paint.

However. For $100.00 per hour. I'll make the OPs look like new. It really blows my mind that people pay all this money for a nice RV, and then never take to the time to care for it, Or want to do it the "EASY" way. Got more money than sense I guess. But then. That's why the repair guy has a nice house, and his stuff always looks like new. Last summer I sold a 10 year old TT. And it looked as good as it did the day it was built. First people I told about it bought it. Their friends accused them of buying a brand NEW TT. Taking care of things ain't all that tough. Fixing them is way tougher.

Protectall oxidation remover followed by a waxing