Help! Meguiar's 49 Oxidation Remover discoloring white fiberglass campershell

[Coarsepicks]

Hello, I'm restoring a white fiberglass Flippac Camper shell. It was made in 2009 so ~11 yrs of outdoor exposure and is a dull/matte white. A friend of mine recommended using the Meguiar's Fiberglass restoration kit to bring back some of the original glossiness and to protect it.

I masked off a rectangular test patch on the roof for a before/after, see image below. Applied by hand with a foam applicator pad and rubbed thoroughly into surface as bottle directed. Immediately wiped totally dry with microfiber cloth.

You can see that the whole test rectangle is yellowed. It also left splotchy patches of a almond/yellowish/tan (circled below). I continued to rub/wipe but could not remove the stain as hard as I tried. I went ahead with the polish and pure wax steps thinking maybe it would all come together in the end. But the splotches are still visible and the color is off to the original as well. I can see the original white color plainly where I've removed some of the original hardware.

The 49 Oxidation remover is kind of an almond color out of the bottle compared pure white of the camper shell. Is this correct? Am I doing something wrong?

[Brian Hann]

Re: Help! Meguiar's 49 Oxidation Remover discoloring white fiberglass campershell

Sorry to hear about your experience. It makes sense that your friend recommended these products as this is an incredibly popular kit and works well for many users. Can't say what's going on here as these results are not normal. Oxidation being too severe and the product simply not working would make some sense but none of these products should be able to change the color of the surface. Maybe the oxidation is worse than expected and the product is just literally soaking into the pores and not wiping off easily?

This is going to be a tough haul without a machine. There are just limits of what is achievable by hand. We would certainly be happy to send you a more aggressive/different compound to try but they really will only work best with a machine as well. If you would like to try that please send an email to customercare@meguiars.com with a link to this thread and your full contact and shipping information.

[Coarsepicks]

Re: Help! Meguiar's 49 Oxidation Remover discoloring white fiberglass campershell

Sorry to hear about your experience. It makes sense that your friend recommended these products as this is an incredibly popular kit and works well for many users. Can't say what's going on here as these results are not normal. Oxidation being too severe and the product simply not working would make some sense but none of these products should be able to change the color of the surface. Maybe the oxidation is worse than expected and the product is just literally soaking into the pores and not wiping off easily?

This is going to be a tough haul without a machine. There are just limits of what is achievable by hand. We would certainly be happy to send you a more aggressive/different compound to try but they really will only work best with a machine as well. If you would like to try that please send an email to customercare@meguiars.com with a link to this thread and your full contact and shipping information.

Thank you Brian, I do appreciate the quick response! i have a Porter Cable polisher 7424XP but it didn't make sense to me to get it out for a small quick 12" test patch, I'll try that too. Could you confirm the color of the 49 oxidation remover is indeed supposed to be almond in color? I purchased the kit on Amazon and the box arrived with one corner damaged. When I opened the box the seal under the cap was still present but compromized, a small amount of the product had leaked under/into the cap (presumably when the box was damaged). I assumed this happened during shipping but I guess there's no real way to determine when the seal was broken. Any chance that the oxidation remover can spoil or expire?

Thank your for your generous offer, I'll be sure to email Customer Service.

JT

[Jonesey]

Re: Help! Meguiar's 49 Oxidation Remover discoloring white fiberglass campershell

I wonder if the colour change is because the dead gelcoat is faded (yep, "white" fades too) and the yellowish tint is the actual original colour. I've been working on getting the gelcoat on my new to me 15 year old boat back in shape. And I've worked on a few heavily oxidized boats in the past. The Porter Cable probably won't cut it, I've always needed to break out the rotary. I agree that some of the problem may be that the oxidation is so severe that the product is getting pulled into the gelcoat before it has a chance to do its job. I tried the #67 One Step Compound and had so-so results. I just tried the 771 Heavy Oxidation Scrub, then #91 Power Cut Compound. Worked much better. Both compounds applied with rotary and wool pad. Now I just need to redo the starboard side and the transom before the new name goes on.