On Monday, February 15, 2021 at 7:51:56 PM UTC-5, Mike Carris wrote:

Yes, I have seen two sailplanes from the same factory, same make, same model and same gelcoat. One was taken care of, buffed, Wx' blocked and sealed yearly and was still near perfect after over ten years . The other was not taken care of and had crazed gelcoat and needed a refinish. Having worked in a sailplane repair shop it has been noted that people often do not take care of their sailplanes.

Just to build on this, while there are differences of opinion on the specific products that people use (German hardwax vs. modern polish; old-school carnuba vs. modern formula coatings) the common denominator is that people who regularly maintain the finish miraculously seem to get the "good" gliders and those who don't... well you get the picture.

That's not to say that if you get a "Monday Glider" (gelcoat sprayed Friday and glass not put in until Monday) you'll have perfect gelcoat. But you certainly will get much worse results if you do nothing.

My protocol that has worked very well through two new gliders is an annual polish (I use 3M products but could just as easily use "hardwax") sealed by 3M Marine Wax done in the spring on ALL surfaces. Then, usually late summer I hit the wings top side only with another polish and wax. The full ship takes pretty much a whole day in the shop. The wings topside only maybe 2 hours.

If I fly a lot (e.g. during a contest) I reapply liquid wax on the leading edge after a few days.

When I sold my 13 year old LS8 (finished in original gelcoat), the IA who did the pre-purchase called it "factory new" at least under a 2x loupe. I'm sure if I had my buddy run it through the SEM he would've found the crazing... :-)

P3
ACA Chief Refinishing Officer (CRO)