I use the Meguiars NXT 2.0 Tech Wax on the cars, and their Flagship boat wax on the boat. Looking at their site, they say the formulation is different, and it appears to me the Marine stuff is a little more agressive with the cleaners than the car stuff.
Anyho, here is a cut and paste from the Meguiars forum from the factory guys:
While some degree of marketing almost always comes into play when
anyone is selling consumables to the general public (that doesn't really surprise anyone, does it?), the fact of the matter remains that there is a huge difference between a gel coat and paint.
Gel coats are much thicker than paint (20-25 mils vs 2 mils), considerably harder and much more porous. In some ways they behave much like single stage paint - oxidation, chalkiness with neglect, the ability to be "brought back" after severe oxidation, etc. But where this process can often be done fairly easily by hand on single stage paint, it's an enormous task on gel coat due to the hardness of it.
The porosity of gel coat is very different than paint as well. Where paint can be wet sanded and polished to reveal a high luster without negatively effecting the paint (assuming that you have enough film build to safely wet sand, but that's another discussion), gel coat responds much differently. Yes, you can wet sand gel coat but once you do you really open those pores and it will start to oxidize and degrade even faster.
Many carnauba based automotive waxes don't play well with gel coats either as there is a greater propensity for yellowing of the finish with them. Again, this is due to the porosity of the finish and it's ability to "drink in" the product - especially once that gel coat starts to age.
Now, if you've got a relatively new gel coat and you get a little scuff on it, or you want to wax it, are you OK using Ultimate Compound and NXT Generation Tech Wax 2.0? Of course. But once that gel coat starts to age you will definitely get better performance out of the Marine/RV line of products.
__________________
