Pontoon cleaned now ugly

[chowda]

I recently bought a 2019 21sc that had a water line. I used one of the aluminum tube cleaners to remove it, but now the tube is hideous. I used shark hide to try and cover it but no luck.

What can I use to get the dark grey shinny look the boat originally cam with.

 

[Jack M]

A few members here have polished theirs . It is a lot of work , stay away from acid wash . You can do a search in the upper right corner for polished .

 

[ILLINOIS AVE]

Go to Youtube. A lot of easy ways to clean them up.

 

[Hosstyle]

if someone has a way I would be interested as well. I have checked youtube and there is no easy way. I am not opposed to work but polishing them looks like a ton of work

 

[jcr159]

and... you'll need to remove the sharkhide to be able to "polish" or change the surface finish. and that isn't a trivial amount of work.

 

[MICLAL489]

Following, I did the same thing and now they look white. It looks ok, but I think it looked better before I did the wash. I used Toon brite. I thought maybe it would not be as aggressive.

 

[Julianna]

Instead of cleaning, you can always put on Vanguard down to the water line.

 

[CLDave]

Instead of cleaning, you can always put on Vanguard down to the water line.

That's my next play. I used an acid wash from Sharkhide after my first year and it made the toons very white, but it faded into "normal" aluminum quickly and I then applied Sharkhide. I have a bunk-style lift with black rubber guides and so I have huge blackmarks down the side of both toons, and they're incredibly stubborn to remove. Vanguard would solve this for me.

 

[chowda]

Following, I did the same thing and now they look white. It looks ok, but I think it looked better before I did the wash. I used Toon brite. I thought maybe it would not be as aggressive.

I used ton brute as well and ended up with white streaky potoons

 

[Jgedeon]

As someone that has done the high speed polishing of my toons in the past I can say that it is a lot of work. But to me it was worth it. But the toons on our boat were neglected when we got it and needed a lot of love. After polishing then I put on two coats of Shark Hide. They looked great all season long, we are trailer boaters so it didn't sit in the water all the time. The boat was used many times per week all season. The shark hide did wear off in places where our fenders were for tie ups and they rubbed through.

There are other methods that are not as involved as high speed polishing. They are not as much work and can give the aluminum a nice finish. This requires the use of scotch bright in a single direction pattern to give the toon a machined look. But first you need to clean your toons properly and remove any shark hide left on the them.

Cleaning the toons with acid, while a needed thing from time to time, should be done with caution, in controlled areas to remove the acid before it dries and in the shade to keep the toons cooler so the acid doesn't dry as fast. Working from the bottom of the toon upwards and then rinsing off before the acid dries. You may need to do this more then once to get them clean. And don't apply any protector over a poor job. Napa's aircraft paint remove is the best at removing shark hide that I have found and leaves traces of where the shark hide is still on the aluminum.

Shark hide application, the baby diaper is very important and the spray can is used in places you can't get the diaper.

 

[Russ Woody]

In New Jersey they use black bottom paint 3/4 cover on the tunes and it looks great. First time is a little expensive but it’s a good look

 

[mtudb24]

If you use the acid wash (aka Toon Brite or Napa alumabrite) it makes them clean. yes a little white, but it sure looks better then what has been shown in this thread even after some time on the water. There is a process on how to do it to not get streaks in the tubes. You need to use a sprayer from HD or equivalent and start from the bottom of the tubes and work up. Then you use a cloth and mix the solution around and make it even and work out the streaksl

I also used the yellow / green scotchbrite pads to get rid of all the little scratches that were in the tubes

 

[FIRE UP]

chowda,
I too am one who's taken many, many, many hours to POLISH our pontoons. As has been stated, it's a ton of work. There's not many Pontoon or Tri-toon owners that are willing to keep up with the continued effort, work, AND MASSIVE AMOUNT OF TIME it takes to KEEP them highly polished. I am and have been retired for several years. So, while the process of keeping my toons in a highly polished state does get monotonous and very tiring, the results are still very much worth it to me. Our boat doesn't go anywhere without receiving very nice compliments from folks. And I'm very much appreciative of all of them.

Now, prior to me entering the ever-ongoing polishing process, I wanted those toons to look as nice as possible with no discoloration at all. Our '14 25RCL Bennington had just 24 hours on it when we purchased it 4.5 years ago. It had been sitting and stored INSIDE an RV garage so, it never saw the sun or the water unless it was being used. All this means is, those toons were not in very bad shape when I started messing with them.

The very first thing I did was purchase a product made by Starbrite in the boating section of Walmart. It's an aluminum cleaner/restorer.
https://www.wholesalemarine.com/sta...rer/?msclkid=053af2fb6ca41a16bd8c94b3510c2eb7

I didn't use the little sprayer that came with it because I wanted way better control of what that mild acid came in contact with. I used a diaper folded up to about 5" x 5" or so. I had a shallow pie pan with that product in it and the diaper. I'd soak that diaper in it and then wring it out about 1/2 way. Then, using kitchen dishwashing gloves, I'd apply that product wiping from left to right, starting at the top of the toon, and I'd wipe about 3-4' or so, then overlap that one by 1/2 and do a return direction wipe. Then, overlap and wipe. Then overlap and wipe back. I'd do that 'till the whole section in front of me was done. I'd put down that diaper with the Starbrite and immediately pick up a microfiber Costco yellow towel that was soaking in some clean hot water in a bucket beside me. I'd basically stop the process of aluminum cleaning by wiping that product off with the clean towel.

About 1/2 down the section I was doing, you could see the transaction from dirty oxygenated aluminum to BRIGHT aluminum right before your eyes. By the time I'd put down the application cloth/diaper, the whole section had turned to very bright aluminum and I'd wipe it clean with the clean microfiber towel. I'd change that clean water and rinse the microfiber towel out about every third section or so. That way you had clean water to stop the acidic reaction. Since I was doing all this INSIDE my RV garage, I was not about to bring in a hose and simply rinse that solution off the pontoon, on to my very nicely painted trailer. This is why I did it the way I did.

Then, I got this wild idea to POLISH them. I'd been polishing aluminum since Christ was a pup. I'd polished more car/motorcycle and RV rims than I can even come close to remembering. I knew waaaaaaay in advance what the total process would be to bring those toons to the mirror finish I desire when I do my work. All in all, once started, it was three days of sanding with a disc abrasive sander starting with 320 grit, then onto 400, 600 and 800. Then, 2.5 days of different aluminum rouge's using a 10" x 1" tightly sewn cotton buffing wheel on a 7" grinder. Then, another day of final application of a compound blend of polish rouge and ultra fine cut rouge. In the pics below, you see the results.

The problem with them when you do a mirror polish is, in some cases, such as where we live, here in lake Havasu City AZ, the water in that lake contains chemicals and metals that will attack raw aluminum. Highly polished non-sealed aluminum is RAW aluminum. There is nothing to protect it. Other lakes in other parts of the country do not have the same chemical makeup in their waters. I can do a touch up and those toons are a mirror you can shave in, and in one outing, there will be a brownish waterline stain. If I don't want to fight removing that stain, I'd polish them again before we take it out again. That process takes me around 8-10 hours for the two outside toons, the center rear one to the first weld, and the three nose cones to the first weld. Yep, it's the old cliche, " a labor of love".

But, whatever kind of finish you desire, you must take all the time and effort to do it right and thoroughly so that you have an even, no streak job when done. ONLY THEN do you apply Sharkhyde. And to be really strong, you need at least TWO COATS of Sharkhyde. Good luck and feel free to ask if you have questions. Be glad to assist.
Scott

 

[FIRE UP]

Those pics were of the Starbite application. These are the polished versions.
Scott

 

[BigKahuna]

When we had our old Bennington in Virginia our marina used to lift our boat off the trailer so they would have full access to all 3 pontoons and give them a thorough professional acid wash after taping off areas not needing it! Removing Sharkhide was not necessary because the acid obliterated it! After the acid wash and a good rinsing they let the pontoons thoroughly dry for a few days. I would then come in with a quart size bottle of Sharkhide and a diaper and give it 2 or 3 coats! Why? Because you shouldn't miss any areas if you give it 3 coats! You'll see if you missed any areas!