bottom cleaning, Pontoons dirty!

[kydonky]

For those that are putting thier boats away for winter at this time, consider a good bottom cleaning. Those pontoon boats that have been in the water all summer are going to be fouled. Even those trailered are going to be dirty. Fiberglass and painted aluminum will benifit with a good wax. Bare aluminum such as some jon boats and pontoons need to be cleaned and polished.

I recenty cleaned a 25 foot pontoon logs by first washing, then used a rubbing compound to remove tarnish and then blue coral mag wheel polish to polish the logs to a silver shine. You will be stunned by the results!! This boat was running about 24 mph by GPS before and after cleanning the boat was moving 31. This boat was trailered and not kept in the water. Your pontoons my look clean, but more than likely they are tarnished and have dirt that is really slowing you down. I plan on cleanning my new boats bottom before hard winter and using a good past wax to keep perfmormance ^ and gas cost down.

If your boat can be trailered I cannot see why anyone would leave one in the water for any extended period of time. Bottom fouling really kills performance.

Moral of the story, Clean your bottom!!

[Shimano4Life]

In my days of working at a boat dealership as a petty detailer, it literally killed me that people would not do this procedure themselves.

I never could understand why people wouldn't do it as soon as they took the pontoon out of the water. It is so much easier to clean off while its still wet. All they would have to do it take it to a car wash and pressure-wash it off.

Instead, they would let it sit in their driveway or in storage and then want it cleaned before the next season -- when the buildup had dried as hard as concrete. We had to use acidic solutions to remove the buildup, and let me tell you from experience, they BURN! We had to wear goggles, respirators, and chemical gloves when using the cleaners like ToonBrite, among others.

Thank you for posting this. Maybe some people will see this, practice the procedure, and save some poor kid making minimum wage some 3rd degree burns!

[Bonefish]

Do a search on cleaning aluminum boats on the Board. You will find the products used to do clean and polish them.

[Shimano4Life]

Thanks, but my detailing days are long gone.

[Tyme2fish]

Yep, If a dirty bottom slows you down, just think what it does to your boat.

[HURRICANEBOB]

I recenty cleaned a 25 foot pontoon logs by first washing, then used a rubbing compound to remove tarnish and then blue coral mag wheel polish to polish the logs to a silver shine. You will be stunned by the results!! This boat was running about 24 mph by GPS before and after cleanning the boat was moving 31. This boat was trailered and not kept in the water. Your pontoons my look clean, but more than likely they are tarnished and have dirt that is really slowing you down. I plan on cleanning my new boats bottom before hard winter and using a good past wax to keep perfmormance ^ and gas cost down.

Here's where I get stumped. The pontoons are on teh trailer in their bunks. I can shine the sides, but how do you really shine and wax the bottoms sitting on the bunks? Or doesn't it matter cause the rest nets the benefit?

[brlfishing]

this is the best and cheapest way to clean your toons. go to your closest HVAC dealer or a place that carries air conditioning cleaning supplys to clean ac coils. get a gallon of the cleaner and an old weed killer sprayer thing, do not use a good one or expensive one as it will eat the hose. start spraying the toons from the TOP down in a side to side motion. DO NOT spray from the bottom up, if you do it will streak. as you clean a 6ft section immediatly spray off with water. this makes them so brite and clean you cant hardly look at them in sunlight. also the acid will eat off anything. it will make your toons look as bright a ac coils.

[kydonky]

Here's where I get stumped. The pontoons are on teh trailer in their bunks. I can shine the sides, but how do you really shine and wax the bottoms sitting on the bunks? Or doesn't it matter cause the rest nets the benefit?

Hurricane, you are correct in that you will find it hard to clean the very bottom of the toons sitting on the trailer. However, cleanning the sides as far down as you can gets somewhere around 80% of the surface that is in the water and causing the drag. The portion that is slid on the trailer bunks is usually not to bad due to the carpet bunks rubbing them clean anyway. You can also jack the front up off the trailer just a foot or so and block the underside for cleanning, do the same for the back. This would be a lot tof trouble though and cleanning just the 80% or so that you can get to will still make a tremendous improvement is speed and performance. It took about 12 hours of work on that 25 footer over a three day period to get those toons really clean and shined. Just running you hand across the surface you will feel how slick the surface is compared to a section that had not been cleaned. I did not jack this boat, just cleaned as far as I could. My arm is still a little sore though.