New to Bennington Old Boater

[MikeP.]

Just purchased a 2005 18ft Bennington w/75 Yamaha. Previous and 1st owner kept the boat in exquisite condition. Except for the pontoons. I have used Napa's Alum Cleaner which did a great job. However the pontoons look very flat in color.

What is the best way to bring back a Luster!

 

[Jack M]

A few members have polished theirs . It's a lot of work. I'm sure some will respond on their method

 

[Angela & Michael]

Just purchased a 2005 18ft Bennington w/75 Yamaha. Previous and 1st owner kept the boat in exquisite condition. Except for the pontoons. I have used Napa's Alum Cleaner which did a great job. However the pontoons look very flat in color.

What is the best way to bring back a Luster!

Old fashioned elbow grease is the only way. But it will look nice for a while.

 

[sunedog]

I have used Napa's Alum Cleaner which did a great job. However the pontoons look very flat in color.

What is the best way to bring back a Luster!

Define luster, please. Are you talking about the natural aluminum gray color or a mirror finish polish job?

The whitish hue you see now will oxidize over the next few weeks on its own and return to the gray natural aluminum color. You don't have to do a thing.

Polishing to a mirror finish is a whole different subject. They look spectacular. But I don't recall ever reading anywhere where someone said they'd go through the process a second time.

 

[MikeP.]

Sunedog, I would like to try and get a mirror finish. Old retired guy here with a lot of free time and a healthy dose of "OCD".

 

[Jgedeon]

I'm one of those that have polished their toons because the old owner didn't take care of the shark hide and the toon looked terrible. So during the off season I did the labor of removing what was left of the shark hide then going through all the steps of sanding and then polishing with a high speed buffer. Then reapplied two coats of shark hide. I was quite happy with the results. And while I kept the boat most of the summer we ordered the wife's dream boat and this one had to go in for warranty work. We now have the new boat and the old boat is on the dealers back burner to complete the warranty work before the put it back on the market.

It is a lot of work, and they looked great through out the summer and many people commented on the polished toons. It is a process that you need to take your time and think things out before you start putting things to metal. The high speed buffer will hit things you didn't expect so hold on tight and make sure things that can be removed are removed. I didn't think I was going to even get close to the transducer so left it in place but the high speed buffer sucked it's cord in to it and the transducer had to be replaced and my garage door cleaned up. LOL Also, it's a very dirty job. There are some video's of how to do it on the YouTubes, also spend some time learning how to polish aluminum on some diesel truck polishing channels, it will help.

The new boat, the manufacturer put shark hide on and missed a ton of places, I am sure I will end up polishing those toons in a few/couple years.

There are also video's out there on giving the toon a more machined look other than the mirror finish that may be a bit easier, and to be honest they didn't look bad. All depends on what you want. Either way you will need to keep up with the maintenance of your toon and any protectant that you put on them, unless you don't mind the way they look.

 

[Michiman]

Welcome Mike! Yup, like Jgedeon stated, everything I’ve heard is that it’s a labor intensive, dirty job. Use the search box at the top to find several threads about the process. I recall one being quite thorough.

Personally, I came from a fiberglass bowrider that probably had an inch of wax on it so now having aluminum tubes required a paradigm shift for my OCD tendencies. I still wax the heck out of the fencing and keep the interior shipshape, but I’ve learned to ignore what the tunes look like. I’m at peace with the trade off between fiberglass and aluminum and I’d never go back.

 

[DVW]

There is a way to acid etch your aluminum hulls to make them look like they came right out of boat factory that uses this process. This job can be done in a short time using acid to remove organic matter and than another acid to remove aluminum oxide. I have done this two times. The first time I was a bit disappointed because the color tone and consistency fell short of the factory application. However it still looked better than a tube with dark grey oxide. The second time I did this the look came close to a factory application. The products that I used had the trade name Zing. Zing Original Formula removes algae but not the grey aluminum oxide. Start with the Original Formula to completely remove the organic matter. Once the organic matter has been removed use the more difficult to apply Zing Formula IV. This will remove oxide and with controlled reapplication it will change the dark oxide color to shades of grey or even all the way to full white. Formula IV also removes algae but you should remove the algae beforehand to have better control of color. Do not use the recommended Zing applicator because it can leave streaks. Use a spray applicator with a spray tip that will tolerate the acid. It’s a two person job. One person sprays on the acid while another person washes it off a few second later before the acid dries. Both people should move down the tube in unison. To start with the aluminum surface should be exposed to the acid no more than 5 seconds. It might take about 15 seconds to make a complete pass down the tube. Use multiple passes until the right grey color tone has been achieved. I personally prefer the color tone used by the brands that use acid etched tubes. If you screw up and get streaks you can go full white by simply reapplying until the streaks disappear. That outcome still looks better than a heavy oxidation on a aluminum tube.