Protectant for kayak

Does aonyone know, would it be appropriate to use up my old Armorall on my composite kayak deck, hull, and hatches ? I know everyone seems to use “303”, but I have a bunch of older types of protectant lying around, including STP “Son of a Gun”…Aren’t they all silicone based? It seems I had heard once that it Armorall actually made rubber more brittle and more suseptable to cracking!



thanks!

armorall
I heard the same thing about Armorall. Now switching to 303 for the kayak as well as the car. - Jim

We used Armorall long before we heard
of 303, and our four plastic boats, two of which are fifteen years old are still in good condition.

We switched to 303 after hearing that it was better, but just last week my wife used some armorall on one of the plastic boats because we ran out of 303.

I wouldn’t hesitate to use it up.



The experts might tell you differently, but what do “they” know???



Cheers,

JackL

Old protectants
open the bottle and look inside. If they’ve been in the garage over the winter, they may have broken down in low temps and be pretty disgusting looking.

IMHO, this is best for Gelcoat…
Gelcoat is different from poly kayaks. Try this and you won’t go pack to the other items. Myself and others have done a review on this too, so look in the review section to read more on it.



“Starbrite Marine Polish with Teflon” (TFE) is really good stuff! It is a chemical type cleaner designed for Gelcoat and Plexiglass, so it will not scratch like an abrasive cleaner. It cleans off any oxidation VERY well.



It has “extra” UV ray blockers in it too, so it protects the gelcoat very well. PLUS, the Teflon in it keeps the “river scum” from gooking up the sides of the hull. When I am done, I just wipe the hull off and it is as clean as can be.



The instructions call for two application for maximum cleaning and protection. This is so smooth of a polish, it is actually hard to put a third coat on. The hard slick finish makes it hard to try to apply a third coat.



The nice thing is that this does not give us an oily coating like Armorall. It dries to a hard smooth finish. and you will probably pick up 10 miles per hour speed when you paddle it too! (JOKE :slight_smile: )



The smooth finish of the polish does help it glide thru the water.



I have been using this for as couple years now, and I am totally sold on it. Read the reviews we have written on this! :slight_smile:

You can use up the Armorall. It won’t
hurt the hull, and it actually needs less buffing than 303 to avoid bleeding into the water. Armorall does not have any polishing compound in it, whatsoever.



Soon, someone will post that they contacted Armorall, and that some ditz company representative said it was not for boats. That’s ok, it works fine for me.