Soft Scrub - does it hurt the gelcoat?-gctid378933

[245ToGo]

The boat comes home today from commissioning, yea! BUT, now starts the annual wash/clean/wax, ugh, my aching arms. My neighbor was out in his driveway this weekend and was using Soft Scrub to clean the gunk off his boat. It seemed to work pretty well, black streaks disappeared, and after he rinsed it well, the gelcoat looked ready for wax. Does anyone know if Soft Scrub is ok to use for cleaning? It's pretty cheap and looked relatively easy to use, spray on, scrub a bit w/ a clean cloth, hose it off. Just wondering if it's too harsh or something.

[Guest]

The Soft Scrub website says the entire Soft Scrub line is OK for fibreglass. So as long as the cloth is soft, it sounds like it should be safe. Just to be sure, test it inside a locker.

Obviously it's going to strip all the wax off, but don't all the decent cleaners do that?

[Guest]

Most shower enclosures in homes are made of fiberglass, just to compare how "home cleaners" may be different from boat cleaners. On the other hand, nobody expects them to be brightly polished and waxed. My concern would be that it may make the gelcoat dull or have swirl-marks. I don't know if it would, but that would be my thought.

I don't think trying it in a locker would do much. I think you need to try it in a small area you can get clear sunlight on and see if it looks dull or swirled.

[Guest]

I've used soft scrub (with bleach) for years and see a lot of other people using it on their boats too. Under normal circumstances I used it on the floors/walkways and areas with textured anti-slip surfaces. It's fantastic for cleaning those areas and turns even the ugliest spot nice and clean again. But I don't normally use it on areas where I've waxed, as I'm sure it removes the wax (e.g. a good cleaner likely takes off wax too). But I do use it for stubborn stains no matter where they are. I try to keep the scrubbing "focused" and use a scrub brush on the dirty areas, working in small areas at a time (a few square feet), and hose off immediately afterwards. With hosing off, it seems to dilute enough that it doesn't harm the waxed areas.

[joeydiver]

So the guy next to me on Saturday sprayed his boat down with a can of Scrubbing Bubbles......then hosed it down.

I guess it cleaned it up pretty good, but I don't know if I'd do it.....

Joey

[Guest]

Been using soft scrub for a few years now to clean every thing up before pressure washing the cleaner wax. Seems to cut the cleaning time by quite abit.

[talman]

But on the non-skid, particularly the swim step, I love it. It gets the hard stuff off.

For little boo-boos on the gelcoat, i will use a magic eraser, and follow it with some polish.