scratches on toons

MCSD12

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Lake of the Ozarks, MO
I recently moved into a 10ft X 28ft slip. I have a lift to keep the boat out of the water most of the time. I have noticed that I am getting little scratches on the toons all the time. The slip has bumbers all along and I used 6" fenders X 4 as well. Any recommendations as to how I can avoid further scratches on my toons?


Since it is a 28ft slip and my boat is 25ft I/O (28ft with the extended swim platform on back), does anyone have an extension to your cover that enclosed the swim platform?
 
We rent a slip every summer at our local marina too, no lift though.  Last summer was our first time.  We started to notice scratches and even a dent in our side door and couldn't figure out how it got there!  Then one day we saw as one of our "neighbors" was getting everything off of their boat.  Banging their crap into the side of ours!  This summer we asked to move to a different slip and there were a couple that were not renewed from last year that we could pick.  Hoping our new spot is better as the our new neighbors seem to actually take care of their boats and look better.  Have to wait and see.  We should be getting our new boat this week or next and if I see anything like that again, there will be hell to pay!   :angry:
 
I'm also in a 10X22 slip so we hang out quite far. When I last saw it three weeks ago it was perfectly secured so as to not touch anything. Hopefully no scratches or dents when we return!


My GCW cover does not extend over the swim platform.
 
My scratches are not from Neighbors. IT has to be coming from things around the dock. Nothing is visible but they are coming from somewhere
 
Mark post some pics of the scratches.....
 
Kinda curious about these scratches. I cleaned mine up this year and was amazed how scratched up my toons were. Were is the word because they all came out amazing after days of cleaning! Send some pics over!
 
Here's some scratches ,hit in my slip 2 years ago ,It also had a dent ,Insurance replaced the tube .


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That was hit #1 right Jack????? :p  I'm trying to keep them all straight!
 
Yes ,motor was last year .  :eek:


We really like the new marina too .May have been a sign 
 
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Ouch!
 
I got this from our forum many years ago.  I thought it was a great idea but never got around to adding to my existing cover.  Would still love to do this to keep the faux teak clean.


Todd

Bennington ext cover 1.jpg
 
I thought that was such a good idea that Bennington would redesign their covers after seeing it.  But no.


Was this one of bcpnick's many awesome upgrades?  Derick was my other guess, but I knew it wasn't him when I noticed the boat wasn't red. 
 
Get a motor cover if you don't have one. The sun will make the motor look old quick.

I have one from tuffskinz


optiproxsracing.jpg
 
Ok back to the original question. How to remove scratches!!!!


well if they are real deep like they look in the photo that's a real tricky one. 


#1 your going to have to acid wash your tunes. And once your ok with that because it changes the look from what the factory aluminum looks like you can begin.


2. To remove a scratch you have to remove material (aluminum) so your sanding out the scratch by lowering the surface around the scratch. If the scratch is real deep you may have to remove so much material you MAY risk making your toon thin in this spot. This is all if it's real deep scratch (like the ones in the photo) so you have to determine is the scratch can be removed "with out" causing further issues that's step #2 


sanding your toons requires some wood working type skills. I don't recommend using any power tools because you can create a hole or dent pretty quick.


but by wrapping some paper around a flexible sanding block you can follow the natural curve of the pontoon and slowly sand out the scratch. It's gonna take some time. I like to sand up and down. Example starting at the water line and sanding up towards the rub rail and then back down that's  (Up and Down) to me. 


You have to try and "sand out" or "blend" your sanding Aera I like to only go a few inches above and below the scratch like 6 inches above and below the scratch. 


Start with a small sample Aera. This will give you a idea what's involved. And how much time could been needed you then cans decide weather to attack or how much to bight off. 


This needs to be done out of the water with the toon fully exposed. 


The grain on the benningtons aluminum runs from front to back don't worry about going against the grain for now. Just do your best to sand out the scratch. When or if you can get the scratch out then we can switch from 220 grit to a higher grit like 320. Once your 320 grit scratches are out you can switch to a 3M red pad. The red pad is what you will use to Re grain the aluminum. The red pad will put the micro fine scratches or grain that runs down the side of your toons. This "re graining" needs to be done straight and Gos from the front of the toon to the back. This blends your work Aera, you can finish it off with a 3M White pad and acid wash the toon. I have found that with these grits  and a acid wash you can remove small scratches and make them look like it never happend. 


Please protect other areas of your boat from acid wash overspray and scratching other parts of your boat like the anodized aluminum ( you can't refinish that stuff) so protect it. My advise is to practice or develop your teqnique on a scratch out of the way. That way if you find out your all thumbs and you don't have the time and patience, you can abandon ship and its no big deal. You don't wanna take on  "ScratchZilla" ( like in the photos above) in the center of your toon with no scratch removal exp under your belt. It takes some practice but once you get it you can fix up small oopsey scratches in your sleep! :)
 
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