Zep high gloss floor max to shine gel coat on motorhome

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
T

thornton251

Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2013
Posts
12
Greetings, I've seen a lot of videos on youtube, about using Zep high gloss floor was on your RV. Has anyone used this product? If so did it work? On the videos it looks like it did a good job bringing back the shine to the RV. Any comments!!

Thanks
Brad
 
Yes it works, but it is not a wax.  It is an acrylic floor finish product.  Zep makes several, so make sure you get the proper one.  The "Wet Look" is what most people use.

The secret is in the surface preparation.  You need to scrub off the old oxidation before you ever begin to coat it with Zep.  If the surface is not properly preped, you will not get the desired result and it will soon peel.

Use a scouring pad of your choice, and Barkeepers Friend to thoroughly clean the surface, then rinse well.
 
Here's the story of a forum member who steadfastly promoted the use of Zep, only to eventually find the exterior of his coach was a mess. He subsequently found a solution to his badly Zep-faded coach, but it wasn't cheap. Use Zep at your own risk, or spend a little more money on the right product to protect your RV's finish.
 
With so many RV/Marine & vehicle wax and sealant products which are designed specifically for their respective applications and battle tested, I do not understand why anyone would even consider using floor products.
 
Zep is rarely used on a finish that is already in OK condition and could as easily be coated with a standard synthetic wax product.  I certainly would not recommend that!  Instead, it is used after removing a badly oxidized finish by scouring with a coarse rubbing compound, typically Bartenders Friend or Bon Ami cleanser, . The cleanser leaves the surface really dull, and would require days of progressively finer polishing to bring it back up to a shine, if it indeed it was possible at all. The Zep Wet Look shortcuts that with a wipe-on, "wet" shine and several coats can make a bad surface look decent again. At least for awhile. It will build up and "yellow" over time, though. Then needs to be stripped and repeated.
 
Instead of scratching your finish use a marine type color restorer. If the surface is a real mess a second coat usually gets rid of the milky haze.
 
On my 2010 5'r I always had a bug problem and after debugging the nose which strips any wax and then having to wax and re-wax, I tried ZEP...... 
Amazing!!!!! Still have the bug guts, travelled 150 miles and again the nose was loaded with bug guts. Parked at the campgrounds and after a rain storm 95% were gone..  Traveled several hundred miles this past week coming home and the nose again all bugged up..    Wet the nose down with a hose... went back 5 minutes later with a pressure washer and WOW..., almost all washed right off and the nose still shines.  For about $16.00 or so for a gallon it seems to be worth it. 

I put three coats on allowing about 30 minutes between coats.  Applied it with a sponge mop. You'll need to watch for runs, which can be handle with a cloth.

Wi1dBi11
 
I'm not surprised that a floor wax holds up better than a car wax in that situation. They are designed to be walked on, after all! The drawback is typically that the "wax" builds up after repeated applications, whereas car waxes generally do not (each new coat replaces the old one rather than adding a layer to it).
 
We did the ZEP finish on our '99 Bounder more than a year ago. It looked fantastic after it was done and still looks fantastic today. We gets lots of compliments on how good it looks for its age. We live in Florida so the sun is intense pretty much year round. I'm very pleased with the results and longevity. The key is to do the process properly. I suspect that those who had problems may have tried to shortcut the prep process or used the wrong products. Chuck
 
I was planning to scrub down my coach this coming weekend with bar keepers friend, and then put some acrylic floor polish on it.... I picked up some knock off mop n glo stuff at dollar general. (Mop N Shine)
I wanted a clean and nice looking MH for our upcoming week long trip.  Now I'm second guessing.

last year I tried rubbing compounds, a buffer, and a few different marine and car waxes.  Ended up going over the whole thing with protect-all in the end, which was easy, but still a lot of surface and a lot of work.....  But it never did really look great

Maybe I'll try it on the badly faded nose cone, then decide on the rest...
 
Not sure I was use Mop-N-Shine. You could sure make a lot of extra work for yourself and not really accomplish anything. Chuck
 
i figure it's an acrylic polish, much like the stuff my my used to use, Future.... just leaves a clear shinny finish for floors.

You might be right though, maybe a different formulation....
 
We did our 92 bounder about 15 mos. ago. Barkeeps friend, tsp, and 5 coats Zep
Wet look. Looked better than when we bought it and was 4 yrs. old. Looks as good today as when we put it
on. Really pleased with results. Also, did old jeep and old pickup. They look like they've been repainted.
 
Just curious how your results vary by finish, i.e. what are your results using Zep/Zip on a full body painted RV, or one with fiberglass and gelcoat (not clear coat), and fiberglass without gelcoat.
 
Tom said:
Just curious how your results vary by finish, i.e. what are your results using Zep/Zip on a full body painted RV, or one with fiberglass and gelcoat (not clear coat), and fiberglass without gelcoat.
Click to expand...

Tom, Our Bounder is fiberglass with the basement compartments all painted. Some of those painted areas are metal and so is our rear bumper. We coated the fiberglass and the painted areas and they both look great and are holding up just the same. Chuck
 
For what it's worth, and despite some contrary advice I've read here, I went ahead and did the floor polish thing over the weekend.

The grey glass finish was just looking horrible, with oxidation.
I had hit it hard last year with various rubbing compounds and oxidation removers, and waxed it up.... but it never did look great after a lot of work.

So I scrubbed it down really well and thoroughly with barkeeper's friend, to "even out the dull"
then used several coats of the floor polish
Zep wasn't handy so i ended up using
Quick Shine by Holloway House
https://www.hollowayhouse.net/?gclid=CjwKEAjw5vu8BRC8rIGNrqbPuSESJADG8RV0EKn-30BJq4vWS_02Rd_vaMWTl3U146tAUalNd7XpuBoCIXXw_wcB
It smells and looks just like the future acrylic floor polish mom always used on her floors.  Brought back memories.

WOW!  after a few coats it really looked great!
I was considering going over it with a good coat of a good wax at a protectant, but ran out of time.  Oh well, I figure i'll let it cure a few weeks to see what happens, and maybe go back and give it another coat followed by wax if things are looking good.

Floor polish may not be intended for the purpose, but the way I loo at it, it's sorta like a poor man's clear coat.  I'm looking at is as a sealer.  Something to seal the fade to smooth the surface and bring out the shine....not so much perhaps as a protectant
 
I have a fiberglass roof on my motor home and I get white streaks down the sides from the roof.  Someone told me to use floor wax on the roof to keep this from happening. has anyone done this? I live in south Florida and I store it in a yard so the sun is beading down on it all day. Not sure how the floor wax will hold up in the sun. 
 
The floor wax will reduce the roof chalking for awhile, maybe as little as 4-5 weeks in your environment. I was doing mine about once a month using a cheap mop-on floor wax. A better grade of stuff would probably last a bit longer.

The real fix is to re-paint the roof, which isn't a difficult task at all. I did mine in an afternoon. Dicor makes a Fiberglass Roof Coat (paint) that does a nice job. If the roof is in good shape except for the chalking, just was it down thoroughly, use masking tape around anything you don't ant painted, and brush on the paint. It dries fast, so you can do two coats in about 4 hours. Dicor has recommends an involved prep process but it's overkill unless the surface is in really bad shape. I wiped Liquid Sandpaper on mine after cleaning, just to make sure the surface was ready top accept paint, but even that probably wasn't necessary.
https://www.amazon.com/Dicor-RPFRC1-Fiberglass-Roof-Coating/dp/B007TQI96K
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,165 (members: 23, guests: 1,142)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,932
Posts
1,387,726
Members
137,682
Latest member
duckyw7528
Back
Top Bottom