BillR

Custom Exotica has arranged for me to test Crystal Guard in the worst possble enviroment, on my boat in salt water. We shall see how well it holds up!

The boat is a 34' PowerQuest offshore boat with lots of painted graphics and large areas of white gel coat.

I have tried many "Marine" waxes and found they don't even last 2 weeks. The last wax I recently tried is Klasse. That produced a nice shine on the paint but as usual the white gel coat looked semi flat. In fact nothing has ever made the gel coat shine like the paint.

The paint on the boat is DuPont Chroma Base, with 3 layers of DuPont clear. (automotive paint)

Last weekend the weather was crappy (cool & overcast) so instead of sitting around the house I decided to Crystal Guard the boat.

Application: I washed the boat (1hour), then while wet I applied Crystal Guard to the hull sides, transom, front deck, and forward part of the hull. . . . . and then ran out of CG.

I then rinsed the boat and proceded to dry it with a chamois. (1.5 hours) At this point the boat looked ok, with 'some' haziness. (The haziness was NOWHERE near as bad as on my car which has had 7 coats of Zaino) I then took my microfiber waffle towel and rubbed down the entire areas that were Crystal Guarded. I did not buff like I had to do on the car - instead, just very light rubbing. At this point the finish was really looking GOOD!!! So good that the dock hands came by and asked me what I was using to get that shine. BTW: My boat is kept VERY clean and shiny at all times, so it's not like I was polishing a turd.

Initial impressions: It was very overcast but: The CG shines like crazy!!! The amazing thing to me is the white gel is now like a mirror and you can see a nice reflection in it. It has never shined like that w/ANY wax. The finish is silky smooth like wax. The painted sections are extremely reflective.

To wash, CG, dry and buff, took about 3.5 hours to do the boat. Bear in mind that 35% of that is 10 feet up, over my head. I was using ladders to do the upper sections. It normally takes 3 to 4 hours JUST to wax the boat, so that should be a good indicator on how quick the CG process really is.

As many of you know CG gets better after a few hours / overnight. I can't report on that yet, as I havn't gone back to look at it.

The boat never went in the water due to wx. So as soon as I get some good wx, I'll see how CG looks in the sun and how well it holds up to salt water. THAT will be the real test!!
But so far so good. Better shine than I expected, esp with only one coat.


Quick note: Lots of you that have applied CG to a car with Zaino (me included) reported LOTS of haze and had to do a lot of buffing to get it to shine. I have done another car and the boat, none previously had Zaino. There was only VERY light "buffing" to get a shine.


Pics as soon as the sun comes out, maybe Fri!?! Stay tuned.


Thank You Custom Exotica!

BillR

A follow up so far:

I took the boat out twice last weekend.

The CG so far is great. People that I hang are asking me what I used to get the boat so shiny. You can see reflections in the hull sides like they are mirrors. The front deck (no paint) is unbelivably shiny and still very slick.

The part of the hull that is constantly in salt water still shines, even after having salt water go past it for about 3 to 4 hours of 50 to 70 mph. At this point normal wax would would be gone and it would be time to wax it again.

I was hoping the transom (which gets very sooty) would clean up easier, but that is not the case. Actually the only down point.

After I wash the boat after each days use, all I have to do is lightly rub the dry sections (about 2 minutes) with a towel and the shine is as good as the first day.


There are two other guys with the same boat, built next in line after mine. One uses Klasse and the other uses Mequires Flagship wax. Both of these are what I used as well, with Klasse giving the best shine & longevity.

The CG outshines both boats (they are as **** as I) and so far has not worn off any.

I am impressed.

Side note: It has been raining here and my car finally got washed after about 2 weeks of rain. After a quick wash car shines like it did when I first applied CG, plus it never really got dirty!?????

ares

iTrader: (2)

you going to do a speed comparison? with GPS and whatnot, hehe run at 70mph for an hour, taking speed measurements every 5 minutes, or less, first with one, then wax with the other and test again, see if one breaks down faster than the other.

think thatd work?

BillR

I'm not going to check speed. I ran out of CG when I got to the "wetted" part of the bottom.