Cleaning hull on aluminum boats question

[Wichita]

Anyone have a magic potion for removing water line stains from aluminum boats. i have a Tracker pro crappie 175. Thanks

[tracker4stroke]

i also have a tracker and once a year i get some toon-brite from r&w marine. its like 13 bucks works great very lil scrubbing needed it gets all the oxidation(sp) off the boat looks good when you are done but it can kill your grass i found out the hard way.

[Dizzle]

Try this link. There are tons of threads on cleaning aluminum pontoons. I personally have not used any of the methods they talk about, but there are some different types of cleaners out there...

http://www.pontoon.net/fusetalk/foru...=28&entercat=y

[findincrappie]

hey there whats up man catchin any crappie at taylorsville witcha

[mattplapp]

Toon Brite is best product out there when applied correctly. Just be sure to wear gloves and follow the instructions. I've seen boats come back after the application looking new. We actually had a guy do half his boat and drive it to our store to show us, he was so amazed at it's results.

matt

[Moose1am]

What's that stuff made from? I have used a phosphoric acid gel that I picked up at the Kuester's Hardware store a few years back. I used one of them hard plastic scrub pads and lots of elbow grease to cleam my aluminum bass boat. I got it nice and shiny and new looking. Then the first time I went fishing in the pits the ring around the collar was right back on the boat. I gave up. I am not about to spend two or three more days cleaning that boat just to have the boat ruined after just one day on the water. Those old coal mine pits are hard on my boat. Makes me wonder what's in the water and at the bottom of these 60 ft deep strip pit lakes.

Regards,

Moose1am

[tpunjack]

I've used toon brite on my pontoons and it works great. But I thought it smelled familiar. I opened a gallon of muritic acid and it smelled the same. I tried it with the same results. Spray it on and wash it off. At a quarter the price.

[mattplapp]

I'm not sure what's in there, its strong whatever it is. I've not heard of the scars coming back ASAP though with toon-brite.

Matt

[TEE]

Go over to the Nitroowners website and I'll fill ya' in on polishing and applying Sharkhide...you'll never look back.
Mine has been on my 02' Tracker for over 4 years now and everyone asks me how did I order a "chrome" boat!:7

[Newlight]

>I've used toon brite on my pontoons and it works great. But I
>thought it smelled familiar. I opened a gallon of muritic acid
>and it smelled the same. I tried it with the same results.
>Spray it on and wash it off. At a quarter the price.


Muriatic acid is an impure technical grade of Hydrochloric Acid; that's why it cleans so well. Be sure to cover your hands with vinyl or rubber gloves and wear eye protection. Just plain old white vinegar will do the same(much cheaper too), but will not work nearly as fast. My Dad and I cleaned the aluminum hull of a 40 ft. houseboat years ago with gallons of vinegar and Muriatic for the really tough spots before we applied antifouling paint.

[Moose1am]

That's good to know. Muriatic acid will etch concrete so be careful and hose it off the sidewalks and driveways quickly so to dilute the acid before it eats a white spot on an otherwise dark concrete slab. :)

I'll get me some muriatic acid and give it a try. Maybe I can park my boat out on the street and clean it there on the asphalt. Don't know if asphalt is effected by dilute muriatic acid or not but I may be willing to find out. If only my garden hose will stretch out that far?

I hope it works without me having to scrub a dub dub for hours on end.

I tried another acid cleaner that was very harsh. This acid will eat the aluminum wheels up in less than 3 minutes. I can't recall the name and will have to run out into my garage to read the label. **** it hurts getting old and loosing my memory sometimes. BRB. lol

It's called Hydrofluoric acid and man it's very strong. The take Hydrochloric acid and substitute a fluorine atom for the chlorine atom. And we all know or should know how reactive Chlorine is. Florine is even more reactive that Chlorine. So if you ever try using this stuff don't leave it on the aluminum for more than 60 seconds and rinse it off THOROUGHLY. I used it on my spare tire's Aluminum Wheel and forget to rinse it good. I stuck the wheel back up under the truck where it's stored and didn't check on it for a few months. When I finally check the air in the spare tire before a long trip I noticed it was completely flat. The acid had eaten and pitted the entire wheel where the rubber tire was sealed and let all the air out. I could not even refill the tire with air as it was leaking around the rim so badly. I ended up having to have the entire rim resurfaced and then they put some new sealer inside the tire to get it to finally seal and take on some air. The Wheels were expensive sport rims. They were brushed aluminum. And some parts of the wheel is polished aluminum. But this hydrofluoric acid will sure clean the brake dust and other grim off these wheels and make them look brand new. Just have to rise them thoroughly for about 5 minutes with a garden hose to get all the acid off them.

Muriatic acid should be safer to use and I think I'll stick with it instead of that Hydrofluoric Acid.

[wish2fish]

I have used toon brite, zing and others for cleaning the pontoon which is left in the water all season. I assume your job won't be as bad.

I have found 2 products that are cheaper that do the same job. Acid Air Conditioning coil cleaner and "The Works" toilet bowl cleaner. You can get the A/C coil cleaner from HVAC dealer around $8/gal we dilute it 50/50 with water and you can get "The works" at Wal Mart or some other stores for $1/pint. Check Costco Ad and Hobby Lobby Ad. Our local dollar store has it!

read the directions for toon brite on their website about how to do it....it works the same way.

You also need to protect the aluminum after cleaning or it will darken as the aluminum oxidizes. Someone mentioned sharkhide and that will do the job.

Good Luck