Tough polishing job

[lakebum]

I am trying to help Zodapop polish his '08 Q 2575. We are having a tough time because it seems like the aluminum that the pontoons are made from has what appears to be "manufacturing marks" for lack of a better term. It is keeping us from achieving a mirror polish and it doesn't look like we will find a way to accomplish it. We tried Sharkhyde's new polish and it seemed to do as well, if not better than the Ro-lite that I used. I hope my polishing blog did not get anyone else into this situation. Steve

 

[Bamaman]

My boat was built 5/12, delivered to my dealership immediately. My dealer kept my boat until 7/12 inside a dark warehouse--perfect conditions. The toons started minor tarnishing immediately upon being built.

I went online to investigate aluminum polishing and went on UTube. I purchased a Porter Cable Dual Action Polisher with a 6" wool bonnet applicator--the standard of the polishing world.

I started polishing with Mother's aluminum polish, but was very disappointed with the results.

I read online about Black Diamond metal polish, (available at any Advance Auto Parts) and a UTube video shows how to apply it. You put about 3 dime size squirts on the wool applicator, put it on a toon, and go back and forth, up and down in an area 2' x 2'. After about 90 seconds, the black oxide will dry up, turn to a powder and disappear from the toon. You wipe off the remainder of the oxide, and it shines up very well. A 9" terry cloth electric buffer will remove the remaining black oxide and minimize elbow grease.

I am very satisfied with the shine on the toons. It's not a mirror image, but a mirror image realistically is impossible to maintain on a boat. Let me say that my toons are shiny enough and they look great. Next time I polish my toons, I can probably do the outside of each toon in 30 minutes or less. And I can use the Porter Cable D/A polisher to detail cars and as a Dual Action sander.

 

[lakebum]

Bamaman, Check out my gallery and you can see that mine did achieve a mirror finish and that is the main reason we were dissappointed with Zodapop's. His look to have a "grainy" appearance to them. We are about to give up and be satisfied with what we have. Steve

 

[Bamaman]

My toons are shiny enough. It is possible to get almost a mirror finish with a Soft cotton buffing wheel on a rotary buffer and a rouge, It'd be just too much labor to maintain a mirror image.

I have Sharkhide to put on the toons, but applying it to toons after polishing produces black streaks. To get the black oxide out of the cracks, welds and the polished areas might take ten times the labor (scrubbing with lacquer cleaner) than just polishing the toons from time to time.

Now, I'm going to see how long my polish job lasts. My boat is seldom in the water longer than 2 hours at a time, and is kept undercover hanging out of the water.

 

[kaydano]

I've thought about the polishing based on a lot of posts here, and while it would look super nice, I have young kids and other things I have to do, but am intrigued by Bama's comments (which I'd summarize as 90% of the shine in 10% of the time) and I'm very intrigued by that (tell me if I'm off on that summary, Bamaman).

I would be very interested in hearing how long it lasts. Worst case is you spent a couple hours on it, but having bought a new pontoon myself and used it just one season, and seeing how the toons look (I didn't do anything to them) my guess is it will last most of the season. Mine is also kept out of the water except for a few hours at a time, thus my interest in this.

UNFORTUNATELY it will be some time before Bama gets the results...