Spring clean/wax for Casita

[cyansmom]

Does anyone use or have experience using Meguires? I’m using their cutter, polish and wax with my rotary buffer. Give me some insight fellas.

[jerrybob]

I've used their boat wax in the past.....now I am too old to spend hours waxing my trailer or truck. I highly recommend a product called BTS...Bow to Stern....designed for boats but works great. Easy to apply after washing trailer....easy to buff out....can do my trailer in about 30 minutes. I do my trailer twice a year......after a ocat of BTS.....it shines. I use same product on my truck and wife's car....she has a dark green SUV that needed waxing badly....applied BTS....paint looked new. This stuff is not as good as a carnuba wax job but.....it is so easy to apply and works wonders. I am too old to stand on a ladder and wax for hours.....don;t need to with this product. Good luck.

https://www.btsproducts.com/

[GatorCasita]

I have made this comment in various threads before, but I will do it again one last time. Car enthusiasts from the 60's continue to promote using wax, particularly Meguiares. What was great for your 62 Vette, is not necessarily best for your FG trailer that is 60 years newer.

Not only does wax products take a huge effort to apply and buff, wax by nature yellows with time and exposure to sunlight. I have seen some shiny waxed trailers that were as yellow as an old dog's teeth. That happens unless one takes a lot of effort to remove the old was before rubbing and rubbing more wax on.

Modern products, particularly those that have been designed for fiberglass, and most for fiberglass boats are much more appropriate, but yes that 62 Vette was fiberglass, but there were no products made specifically for it.

My personal experience is that a a product called Starbrite boat polish (with PTFE = Teflon) works great, takes so much less work than wax, does not yellow, and has kept my 15-year-old Casita's fiberglass nice and white and shiny...and with little work (once a year at most for an hour or so -- no rubbing, just Wipe on and Wipe off. Your karate muscles will not be developed, however.

I suspect that there are other products that work as well, but I can't tell you what they are. I have no affiliation or self-interest in the company that makes Starbrite...

[Cotton]

I'm old school too, but everything about the good old days, wasn't all that good....

[John in Santa Cruz]

meguiars marine stuff is very good, but there's lots of other good boat products designed for gel coats...

if you use a 'polymer sealant' aka 'poly coat' rather than a wax as the final step, it will shine for at least a year, maybe two. before this you should strip any old wax off with a strong detergent, then use a mild polishing compound suitable for fiberglass + gel coats, then finish with the polymer sealant.

[DougOlson]

I recently got a recommendation for Aero Gloss cleaner, polish & protector that is supposed to be popular in aircraft and marine business. I had used Meguires previously on my Scamp before I sold it. Polish followed by wax, worked well but was lots of work. I got some Aero Gloss ($20/pint) to get 2000 miles of bugs off my Escape and it works great and by hand application was easier. Of course, the Escape has no oxidation yet so I don’t know how well it works for that. Not sold by Amazon but Google can find a couple suppliers.

[Perryb67]

Originally Posted by cyansmom

Does anyone use or have experience using Meguires? I’m using their cutter, polish and wax with my rotary buffer. Give me some insight fellas.

I’ve used Meguires and found it needs to be applied a minimum of every year, and still have a complete but partially used kit of Meguires products. Meguires just didn’t last that long and is too much work for the short time it looks good.

I now use Zep. First you have to remove all the chalky product from your camper with Zep stripper. Use a spray bottle to spray a glove for cleaning vehicles so you don’t get any on your gaskets, etc. Then rinse the camper off and dry with a towel. Finally use a separate spray bottle for the Zep Wet Look wax and spray a new glove to apply a thin coat. It takes me about 20-30 minutes to apply each coat to our Escape 5.0 fifth-wheel. Three or four coats for the first time and you’re done, no nasty buffer needed.

Finally, I can strip, rinse, and apply Zep in less than 1/3 the time needed for Meguires.

Enjoy,

Perry

[John in Santa Cruz]

Meguiars (aka MirrorGlaze) makes around 100 different products. They have polymer sealants that will give you a 2-3 year shine. they have all sorts of cleaners, polishes, waxes, combination cleaner-wax, etc. they have marine products and automotive products.