1996 Mirage Trovare 202
Moored 6 months a year in fresh water
Dock
Bare gelcoat

The bad side is out of sun. Actually not much sun exposure on either side.
I can tell you I doubt it was regularly waxed in the past 13 years. I have owned it since Sept 2007

 

yeah an older boat is extremely hard to almost impossible to get the shine back unless it has extremely thick gelcoat... newer is easier to work with... usually if the boat has thicker gelcoat you can use a high speed buffer and almost burn the wax into it then go over it again slow for the shine, thats what some/most detailers down here do... the mold release wax has worn off exposing bare gelcoat, to you have to heat it back up enough to get the wax to almost melt into the gel. if it was waxed once or twice a year it wouldnt have faded or atleast as quickly... its best to pay a professional to do it, hire an actual boat detailer, not someone who does cars and boats, they'll charge a bit more but its usually worth it...

we usually wax our boats twice a year because their kept outside 24-7/365 and are used all year... although they are kept on trailers, our older boat, which is an '86, when we bought it looked like it wasnt waxed for 15 years, a local detailer made it look like new... takes 3 days total to detail our larger boat, and thats just the outside!

 

Here is a pic of what I am talking about. I pulled it out the water and put 2 coats of turtle wax ice on it. You're right, it didn't work.



Crap link above doesn't work. I added an album and it's in there.
https://www.f150online.com/forums/me...oxidation.html

 

Go get the MEGUIARS MARINE OXIDATION REMOVAL KIT.