Cleaning Aluminum toons?

Larson1865

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Ok, I know I have seen some recommendations on the forum before so forgive me if this is a repeat question. I have a 2014 24' SSRX in storage after its inaugeral season last year. When i pull it put this spring I want my pontoon logs to look like they did when I brought it homr from the dealer last April. What do I need to buy and do to get them shiny. They are not bad, just discolored. I trailer it so their is not any algae build up.
 
My boat had been kept in a dark warehouse for 1 month until I bought it.  The aluminum was already tarnishing.

Get yourself a Porter Cable 6" dual action polisher sander and a 6" wool bonnet.  Go to Advance Auto Parts and pickup a bottle of White Diamond metal polish.

Put 2 dime size dollops on the wool bonnet, place it against your toons, and hit the switch.  Go up and down, back and forth over a 2' x 2' section.  In about 90 seconds, the black pasty aluminum oxide will all of a sudden polish the toon, turn to powder and mostly blow away.  Take a towel and wipe off the remaining dust.

This gives me a decent shine as I care to have--for the energy expended.  I can polish the outsides of two toons, 3 nose cones and the back end of my boat in just over an hour.

I have found that cleaning my toons with lacquer cleaner in order to get'em clean enough for Sharkhide is just too much work.  It's easier to just polish them every May and enjoy the boat.

I also have a high speed polisher like car detailers use.  With a rouge and a cotton bonnet, they can get an almost mirror finish.  But working such a polisher is a very difficult and physical job.  My D/A polisher does a good enough job for me.
 
I'd like to see pics if you have any Bama. As I did not do sharkhide I'm curious how your results look.
 
That is great advice. I also did not do sharkhide and am more than willing to do a couple hours of yearly toon shining. Thanks.
 
Mine got noticeably tarnished in two weeks, and ugly after a month, so I polished and sharhided mine. Seems like it depends on water conditions how fast they tarnish.
 
I'd like to see pics if you have any Bama. As I did not do sharkhide I'm curious how your results look.
Sorry I don't have any pictures, however clean toons polish up very good with an electric polisher. 

I don't have the desire to polish the toons to a mirror finish--or maintain such a shiny aluminum finish.  That requires my high speed polisher, rouge and a cotton bonnet.   And those high speed polishers are like trying to hold onto a wildcat--very physical machines.

My boat stays undercover in our boathouse all year--20 miles away.  I won't be going over there for a couple of weeks.
 
I can wait! Thanks bama
 
And those high speed polishers are like trying to hold onto a wildcat--very physical machines.
You can say that again!
 
Just got done taking advantage of the 70* weather this weekend here in ND and finally got around to polishing my tubes after 3 years of lusting to do it. About 14 hours into doing just the outsides and rear of the outer tubes. I am one sore pup from running the buffer for 14 hours and then all the final wiping and hand polishing and 2 coats of sharkhyde but it sure looks good now. Would have gone a bit faster but it had about 3 coats of sharkhyde on it before hand, I wiped it down several times with acetone but it didn't take it off too well, I would have used a lot more of it not to mention a lot more rags so I just buffed it off which was a bearcat in itself.

I have a standard variable speed rotary buffer and a random orbital, tried the orbital at first and realized it would have taken a lifetime to do it that way with cotton bonnets, used a wool pad on the rotary buffer on speed setting 5 of 6 and it went a lot faster, used Mothers aluminum polish to do it as it worked nice on my last pontoon as well so I stuck with it.

I took pics and will try to remember to load them when I get a chance.
 
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Brings back memories... NOT good ones. But it looks very good, and the shark hide really seals them up. I only did one coat though. After spending a three day weekend on it, it was time to go back to my day job.
 
Looking forward to the pics!
 


Shiney looks good but it is WORK and its very messy

 
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Toon'r you spent more time in the tight spaces of the nose cone than I did, looks good, I had a hard time getting into the area between the deck and wave splash guard with my big buffer and I skipped the bottom side of the wave shield figured it was not worth the extra time as I was getting whooped by then. Yours turned out nicer in that area than mine. I am working night shift this week so maybe the weekend before getting pics loaded unless I find some extra ambition one morning this week. :wacko:

I work 2pm - 2am shift this week so am a bit groggy in the a.m. when I roll out of bed at 9ish am.
 
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Some eye candy for all of you.









 
Nice job!  What did you use?  I see a bottle of Mothers something lying in the grass. Is that a wool bonnet?
 
Yep on both,  Mothers aluminum polish and a wool bonnet on a variable speed ATD brand buffer on speed 5 with 6 being the fastest it has on this particular unit. Tried an ATD brand random orbital buffer with a terry cloth bonnet at first and soon realized I would have been 80 years old before getting one side done that way.
 
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Sorry, I see now you already posted that info.
 
Wow that seems easier than the Cotton pads and several different steps of rouge. 
 
I was thinking the same thing. And he's not covered in black inside and out in his photos.
 
 10 hours is pretty good also.

How much Mothers did it take and how many buffing pads did you use?
 
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