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Keeping the Toons Looking Great

Mine is a 2005 as well and also have that skirt. I didn't remove it or tape it off when I polished last year with the Gord's.  It didn't seem to be affected by the polish/polishing wheel.  Maybe others will chime in on this one.
 
Amazon has lots of good reviews on the Kawasaki variable speed polisher with soft start.  I will buy on of those for half the price of the DeWalt, since I am not going to be using it to make a living with.
 
I would like to know how much mess it makes while polishing the toons...especially the area around and on the floor. Does it cause much dust in the air that would settle on things in the  general area?  I don't care how much settles on me, its my brother's new pole barn that would be the concern....he likes to keep it really clean and I don't blame him. 
 
Fiddlebick,


When polishing with wheel and rouge, it does kick up a little bit of dust from the rouge being applied to the wheel. You will want to cover the floor with a tarp or drop cloth plus cover anything else you don't want dusted. While the residue does vacuum up very easily, it can tend to get "ground" into the floor when walked on. That will clean up pretty easy with soap/water and a scrub brush.
 
Thanks big block!  Got to keep the brother happy, he built a barn big enough to store both his south bay and my benny side by side, with plenty of head room and floor space to work on them as needed. I would never have such a nice boat without that.  If I attempt to polish toons without pulling the trailer out, do you think I can jack up the entire boat and trailer, then block the boat and drop the trailer, remove one bunk at a time as I work on the toon, and have the needed clearance to work a polish on the underside of the toons?  I really don't want to pull the trailer completely out.  Anybody like this idea, and will it work?
 
I thought about doing that last year when I polished mine but then decided not to because no one is going to see that part anyway.

As soon as it warms up a little I am going to purchase all of this stuff (already have the buffer from last year) so I can try this method this year instead of the Gord's.  Can't wait to see how this works.
 
Fiddlebick,

You do not need to pull the trailer out if the bunks themselves are removable. To jack the pontoon, I used 54" long 4x4's to support the underside of the deck. I supported them with basic floor support jacks I picked up from Home Depot. Then I simply deflated the tires on the trailer to allow it to drop down allowing me to remove the bunks and afford me the open workspace. When done, I simply re-installed the bunks, inflated the tires, and removed the jacks.

My intention was not to polish the underside of the toons, but to allow me to have a much more open work area and avoid buffing up against the bunk material.
 
Here are the "homemade" jack stands I used to support the pontoon... only one side at a time.



 
Come to think of it, my trailer may have welded bunk supports, I will have to have a look see.  I love the floor support jack idea.  There is a drawback to not having my boat here at home. Every time I need to look at, or measure something, it is a 15 mile drive to where its stored. 
 
 
Looks like i won't be polishing toons anytime soon, little brother said absolutely not getting any polish dust in his shop.  I don't really want to work on it in the rocky drive at home either.  
 
BigBlock, you sound alot like me about polished toons. Go to my gallery and check mine out. Starting fourth year on the polish job and they still look good. Steve
 
Steve,

Those look great! What process did you use to polish them? Did you Sharkhide?

Yes it's a lot of work at first, but they look so good!
 
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That's a great deal.
 
Kaydano,

That's a great type of polisher to have for paint finishes and final polishing of aluminum. A random orbital polisher is used to remove swirls caused from buffing. If you are looking to polish the toons from a dull finish, whether using wheel/rouge or paste type, you will need to use a rotary buffer as opposed to a orbital.
 
That's the exact one I bought last year.  I 100% agree with you regarding Harbor Freight stuff but I wasn't going to spend a fortune on one of these knowing the only time I'd use it was for polishing my toons.  Worked just find and I'll be using it again this Spring....if it ever gets here.  I put more emphasis on thick, high quality pads for them.
 
Thanks for the great advice. Going to get one today.

The worst part of it is I have to cut a hole in my BoatUS magazine to get the coupon out.
 
BigBlock said:
Kaydano,

That's a great type of polisher to have for paint finishes and final polishing of aluminum. A random orbital polisher is used to remove swirls caused from buffing. If you are looking to polish the toons from a dull finish, whether using wheel/rouge or paste type, you will need to use a rotary buffer as opposed to a orbital.
Click to expand...
Okay, I think I see what BigBlock is saying now, and I see now that the Harbour Freight tool is NOT the one I want...

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/circular-polishers-rotary-polishers-high-speed-polisher/65498-difference-between-rotary-random-orbital-orbital-polisher.html

I want the "rotary buffer" which has a FORCED rotation, and NOT the dual action polisher (which does a large orbit and a small orbit at the same time, but "slips").  The dual action (DA) polisher "floats" on the surface, meaning if you press down hard, the pad will stop turning even though the motor continues to turn.  It "slips" if you will.  The "rotary buffer" has a FORCED action and will keep turning no matter how hard you press on it (unless you press so hard you stall the motor) and that's the one you want to use to "cut" into the oxidation on the aluminum toon to get the oxidized layer off.  Like BigBlock said, you could finish up with the da polisher, but I'm guessing I'm going to get a good enough mirror finish with the rotary buffer. 

Thanks for keeping me from wasting a trip, $50, effort and no doubt frustration!
 
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Okay, I bought a "rotary buffer" at Harbour Freight today. It is not the one I mentioned in the link above, but I think the one I got is the kind BigBlock was recommending. It cost $32 after 20% coupon.

$32. Ha ha. We'll see if it lasts long enough to finish the toons. It has a 90 day warranty, and I'll be finished with it in 60, so if it craps out, I'll just go get a free one.

After $65 for Sharkhide, I'll have BigBlock looking toons for $100...
 
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