Cleaning hull on aluminum boats question

[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

[motalot]

swh supply sells it in spray bottles works perfectly and it is very inexpensive

[TEE]

Don't use acid cleaners...it'll just turn white.
Polish it and Sharkhide it.
Go to Sharkhide.com and check out my ride in the testimonials:-)

[Newlight]

TEE is right the white color is aluminum oxide. If you want your boat to shine after cleaning with acid you'll have to apply a sealant to keep the freshly etched aluminum from oxidizing.

[Moose1am]

Just polish the aluminum with some wax. The wax will prevent air from oxidizing the aluminum won't it?

It took a long while before my cleaned aluminum boat faded or turned dull.

Maybe it depends on what type of aluminum it's made out of. There are lots of different aluminum alloys. My boat is a fishermarine with the thinner aluminum that was made way back in 1978. So that alloy may be much different that the newer boats aluminum. But then again it could be the same. LOL

What's that shark stuff made from? I ain't going to buy something that costs very much.

Regards,

Moose1am

[Moose1am]

"The Works" toilet bowl cleaner is Hydrochloric acid too. Same thing that's in our stomachs that digests our food. Only the Normality is much stronger in the toilet bowl cleaner. It's high concentration or high Normality HCL. One Mole of HCL is on normal ? Any chemists out there? I forgot how to figure the Normality of those acids. It's been 30 years since I had to do that in school.

Suffice it to say it's a strong acid. Not as bad as Nitric Acid but still pretty strong stuff.

Just don't get any on your cloths or eyes or skin. Wear goggles and protective gloves made out of thick rubber or vinyl.

I use to have to work with HCL in high concentrations in the chemistry lab where I worked. And the HF acid was so strong that we had to have a safety hood that was just dedicated to using it with HF acids an nothing else. Some woman who did the soils analytical work at the lab used that HF acid all the time. So she had two safety fume hood in her work area. One for regular acids and one just for the Hydrofluoric acids. I will say this. The Eagle One Etching MAG cleaner does clean my aluminum wheels on my truck fast. Spay it on and scrub in in with a plastic bristle brush and then hose it off all in less than 60 seconds for each wheel.
Regards,

Moose1am