Almost 20 years ago, by wife and I bought a 19’ Bigfoot travel trailer. According to the salesman, the previous owner’s had domestic difficulties soon after they had bought the trailer new. They took one trip and the trailer then went into outdoor storage for nearly four years . The inside of the trailer was like new but the exterior was heavily oxidized and very faded and chalky. Over the years I have tried just about every polish, cleaner, restorer and wax on the market. Some did nothing, some restored a faint shine but the gloss always faded after a few weeks. I have kept the trailer clean, but dead bugs, bird droppings and other stains seemed to “soak” into the fibreglass and need a great deal of effort to remove them.

Probably because of the fact that I am now getting near eighty years old, the annual clean up and polish of the trailer, gets harder every year. After a lot of on- line research, I decided to try Poli-Glow re-finishing system. I was a bit skeptical about the manufacturers claims, but as I seem to have tried every other restorer, without lasting success, I decided to give it a trial.

Being a procrastinator, I used the excuse that Poli-Glow must not be applied in cold weather, to wait for the hottest June on Record in British Columbia, before I started.
I decided to do an extra step in the application that was not required in the instructions and I first gave the trailer a “super clean” I used a garden sprayer loaded with one part Simple Green and two parts water. I sprayed this on a small area and then scrubbed the wet area with 3.M. White Scotchbrite pads. (purchased by the yard). If any stains or discolouration remained , I repeated the process. I rinsed the cleaned area with a pressure washer on its lowest pressure setting This step took me two days, starting work very early in the morning and stopping before the hottest time of the day.
I was quite worried by the fact that the Bigfoot was now bone white and not the pale tan that was the factory colour in the late 80’s . Another worrying fact was that my driveway was running with white creamy water that was the oxide from the fibreglass . I feared I may have removed all of the remaining gel coat.

The next step was to clean the trailer again using the provided spray bottle of Poli-Prep and again scrubbing with Scotchbrite white pads This step was easier and took me only a day.
The final step was the application of the Poli-Glow itself. An applicator is provided and this step was quick and easy. At least five coats are required. In the temperature I was working in, the coat dried in a couple of minutes.

The first coat of Poli glow looked terrible, it left the trailer streaky and multi-shades of cream and white and I seriously considered removing it and reverting to Wax and elbow grease. I did however persevere with the Poli glow and the second coat at least did away with some of the streaking and the colour was more uniform. The third coat was spectacular in it completely restored the trailer to its original colour. Coat four gave the trailer a good shine and the final coat number 5 made it gleam like new.

I quite frankly did not think this degree of restoration was possible and I was doubtful if it would last. It is now about three months since I completed the job and the trailer has been on two trips and has traveled on gravel roads and has passed through clouds of bugs and the only cleaning it has received, has been spraying with a garden hose with no soap or brushing and I am delighted with the result.

The manufacturers of Poli-Glow recommend and annual single coat maintenance. There was enough product in the kit to do my trailer twice, so I have lots left. I am not in any way connected with Poli-Glow and other than making an on-line purchase of their product I have had no other contact with them.

This is my experience of the product. The results obtained by others my vary. I am convinced that my success with the product is due to the extra “mega” cleaning I gave my trailer.

Good info Colin. We will be restoring the finish this fall on out 5th wheel and have been trying to decide how to tackle it.

I put 4 coats of PoliGlow on my 1983 13' Scamp and people think my trailer is only 1 or 2 years old.
This stuff is GREAT in my book.

I have been putting off doing my trailer with the PoliGlow I bought because I don't have a covered area to store it out of the sun/rain. That will change when my shop is finished this month. I will post some pics of before / after.

lets see some pics of your bigfoot Colin

Colin you can email the pics here and ill post them for you

punderwood86[at]gmail.com

just replace [at] with the correct symbol

here are the pics of Colins Bigfoot

These are "pre Poli Glow" pictures. Later pictures to follow soon

Helpful info Colin.
My 'new' 07 Escape looks good on the sides, but roof is very chalky, due to outside storage I'm sure.
I'm just trying to muster the gumshun to get going.
Deb

Hi: Deb H... I had a bottle of Meguires Cleaner Wax so I used it on the roof of "Our Escape Hatch". Just applied with an old sock, and buffed it with an old Tee shirt. Wow what a diff.
Down side now I only have my uniform and pajamas left!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

Colin did you order it on line or did you find someone in BC that sells it?

Hi Alf,
I'll have to get some Meguires. I just finished washing Greyt Escape, and ...surprise!....not so chalky afterall. But a little extra protection is necessary. Certainly there's a sock and tee around here somewhere up to the task.
Deb H

I let mine go too far to use something such as polyglo. The gel coat was so thin that in some places you could begin to see the glass fibers below.

The only solution was an epoxy primer, then two wet coats of two part polyurethane auto paint and another three coats of clear coat.

It was a lot of work and I did end up with quite a bit of orange peel as well as several runs to sand out, then polish -- but now it really is an improvement, both visually as well as maintenance wise.

We Poli-glowed our 1995 Bigfoot 17 ft trailer. When we were close to Canada a Canadian Gentleman asked if our trailer was new, and I said it was a 1995. He had never seen one. All other shine products are a waste of time and do not last for me Poli-Glow is the way to go. You can order it from www.myboatstore.com.

I agree 100%.
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Best product.

Ok I know that Poli Glow is great for gel coats. My trailer had some damaged firberglass which I repaired then I painted the entire trailer with a Marine paint formulated for Fiberglass. I rolled it on and was and am very satisfied with the result. Could I get more gloss by using Poli Glow over this paint?

Hi: All... It's my understanding Poly Glo is not for new fiberglass trailers or new paint. It is only for restoration of old chaulky/dull fiberglass. On our '07 Escape it wouldn't work any better than a good wax job. Here's a pic. of a Meguires shine. Labour Day at Niagara Falls!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

I'm new here, but have previous experience with Poliglow.

I have a 25' sailboat that has been maintained with Poliglow for years before it came into my possession. The shine on the hull is fantastic. After prolonged use however, the glow will start to fade. It will still look waxy, but instead of a crisp, clean looking finish you will start to see yellowing in the finish.

Its the same as you used to get on the old kitchen floor that you waxed over and over, and that's because Poli-glow is very similar to floor wax chemically. Possibly the same, although the manufacturers won't say boo about that.

Once the wax starts to yellow, Poliglow sells a stripping formula. It is very strong (don't breathe in!), but strips 90% of the wax off just the same as floor stripper used to do on the kitchen floor. If you ever have to use it, wear a mask. Interestingly, a can of easy-off oven cleaner will also go a long way to stripping the wax off fibreglass, but don't leave it on too long, or the Easy-Off will eat into the gelcoat.

Here is our boat with the wax being stripped and lettering applied... http://littleboatiris.blogspot.com/2009/05...ng-weekend.html

In the pics you can see the lines where the Poli-glow was removed and the original gel-coat is exposed. There is a distinct difference.

Sorry for the delay, I have been on the road with the Bigfoot. The highlight of the trip for me , was in Oliver BC when a gentleman approached me in a campground and said he was very pleased to see that Bigfoot had started manufacturing the 19' again . In answer to your question Carol, I did find a source for Poli Glow in Vancouver B.C. The vendor did seem a bit disorganised for on line sales and would not accept a Credit card. But he did mail the kit to me and I sent him a cheque when the Poli Glow arrived. I will look up his details and post them.

It did not take me as long as I thought it would to find the details. The company was Windhopper Enterprises and the owner is Mr. Ram Thavamany at 604 837 4344 E-mail :- ram[at]windhopper.biz / www.windhopper.biz

Chrs- similar to which floor wax? The only one I can think of is maybe Futura.

I can't find the email now, but a chemist friend of mine looked into the polimers used in poliglow to find a better way to remove it than using the stripper suggested by the manufacturer when we went to apply our decals. his feedback was that we should try straight ammonia or floor stripper, that failing, turn to the oven cleaner, but be quick to remove before it did lasting damage to the gelcoat. Sorry I can't find any better info for you.

Before we used the Easy-off, I tried wetsanding the hull, and found that the Poliglow does build up little layers of wax on the FG. I agree that it is probably the best thing to use to get your gelcoat shiny again, but I would humbly suggest that you remain prepared to strip it every 5 or 10 seasons to get rid of the buildup. I think Poliglow has words to that effect on the package.

poliglow is floor wax isnt it?

Before and after pictures of my trailer
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This is the best picture I have to show how bad it was

This is the shine after wet sanding and applying 3 coats of industrial floor finish
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I have applied 1 additional coat this year and the shine is still very good, some people think it is a new trailer and when I tell them it is a 1972 they can't believe it. When I have to take it off I will use a odorless floor stripper. I run a cleaning company and have excess to all the products I need and their is almost no cost except for $15.00 for a gal of finish

I've just started to restore the outside of our 1975 trillium. Chalky is the best way to describe the condition the outside was in when we received it. It has since been well soaped & washed, lightly pressure washed and scrubbed with borax to get the majority of the grime off. after getting it good and clean i was anxious to see what it was going to take to get some shine happening, here is what I did:
I picked a corner and gave it a good rubbing with some gel gloss (really good for acrylic tubs and similar indoor fixtures). I then picked another spot directly beside and went at it first with some turtle wax rubbing compound, then some turtle wax polishing compound and then a bit of carnauba wax.
In both cases i got enough shine to feel like I had accomplished something, but not what i would call a deep gloss.
Not completely satisfied, I decided to try wet sanding a test spot on another corner. I started with 600 grit, then worked up to 1000, then 1500, 2000 and then some polishing compound. that is when I started to appreciate how deep the oxidation damage really is. By removing a bit more of the surface I was able to get the gelcoat really smoothed out and the difference was night and day compared to my other attempts. There are areas in the gelcoat that I thought had some microscopic black flecks added as part of the original colour. Turns out this is grime that is embedded in the pits of oxidation. After a bit of sanding, looking really close in some of these areas I could tell the surface was pitted. A bit more elbow grease and the finish looks restored.
My conclusions from this are that an oxidized trailer can be given a bit of shine by throwing a coat of wax on but if the surface quality isn't dealt with that coat of wax will see more dirt sticking to its less even surface and will have microscopic dirt in spots between it and the finish. Likely resulting in it fadeing much quicker.
Poli-glo is an option, for me I would rather try to restore the existing gelcoat first than bond a layer of (synthetic wax?) that i might have to fight to take off in the future.
I'll be buying two compounds to achieve the final polish after wet sanding: Farecla profile 300 and profile 500, this i'll be like the turtle wax polishing compound but much better quality, used in manufacturing for gelcoat products to remove any mould defects or imperfections. I have found an acrylic repair shop in town that uses and carries Farecla products.

Sorry that got a bit long winded, just eager to share my experience.

-Kevin

Kevin,

What you have reported echos my experience with fiberglass boats. I've found either a good compound (I used 3M, but have also used Meguiars), or wetsanding paper (about 600 to 1500 grit) to yield the best results.

With the compound, I also found that I need to use a good strong buffer, something like a big Milwaukee. When I did my first boat, I first tried a "homeowner" buffer from Home Depot -- no go. Once I rented the big metal Milwaukee (used a 3M Superbuff type pad on it), I got some real gloss going

Raya

I've recently purchased a 1996 Casita 16' LD that has lived it's life in Texas & the Southwest. The gel coat is certainly highly oxidized. I diddled with several polishing & rubbing compounds (3M & Turtle Wax) and was not impressed with the results given the effort. Reading this thread I recalled that 5 years or so ago I had Poli-prepped & Poli-Glowed my Precision 18 sailboat. I tried the Poly-Prep cleaner and it worked much better than the paste polishes or compounds for restoring the gelcoat. If the weather holds out, I'll continue this cleaning.

I endorse and recommend the Poli-Glow product based on past and current experience. I have no connection with this outfit, just saying their stuff works for me compared to other products on highly oxidized gelcoat.