Toon cleaner

[Maybrook]

Well gang,
I don't know about the water composition in any of your lakes that you folks play in but here in ours, Lake Havasu AZ, there's some form of caustic solution that we (original polisher) and many people have tried to analyze. In seeing some of your "cleaned" toons, just how long does it take for them to *re-tarnish* or develop at least some form of oxidation of stain or turning a darker gray etc? If not in say, a few times out after cleaning, might they turn "ugly" after a season? In the pics below, you see what happens to our highly polished toons after just ONE DAY on the lake! To be honest, we'd never taken the boat out after I acid (Starbrite product) washed them before we decided to do a serious polish job in the off season so, we never had a chance to see what our lake would do to freshly acid washed toons.

These are MIRROR polished and we absolutely love them. WE get constant nice comments both out of and in the water when playing around. But, without a doubt, having them remain like that is serious pain in the a$$. After just a few hours on the lake, when we return home, I back the boat into the RV garage and let it sit for a day, water spots and all. Then the next day, I break out the Vinigar water/solution in a spray bottle and spray all the polished toons down, along with the trailer and then, using a hot wet but severely wrung out microfiber towel, wipe everything down that was sprayed. All the water spots are completely gone, but not the severe waterline and down STAINING!!

I then break out the two random/oribital sanders, one equipped with an application pad and the other equipped with a removal pad and some Zepher 40 metal polish, some electric ear phones blue toothed to my I-pod and go to work. If we go out ONE DAY and bring it back in, it takes me about 4-5 hours of polishing to bring all them back to mirror finish. If we go out more than one day, like two or three, then it turns in to about 2 days of polishing! Yep, a pain in the a$$! I have tried a top commercial aluminum coating, the same one used on Semi-truck wheels and nope, that didn't fair well at all. I have tried a clear vinyl wrap and while it's hanging in there on the sides of the center rear toon, it's peeling off on the front edges slowly due to the water pressure from speeds of boating.

So, at this time, I created a monster in these toons if I want to keep them like they are. Good thing I'm retired!
Scott

P.S. I know some of you apply that acid solution with a garden sprayer. But, our trailer is a high metallic custom paint and I wouldn't even think about getting even a severely diluted solution of that acid on that paint. THIS is why I do the hand application, when I did it, before I decided to have them polished.

Wow….thanks for the pictures and feedback…looks like a lot of work to maintain the shine

 

[Maybrook]

I second this. Sunedog and Big Kahuna spelled it our correctly. I put it in a home depot pump up sprayer. Lots of water on the trailer. I always started from the bottom of the toons and worked my way up as well.

Thank you

 

[Vikingstaff]

Wow….thanks for the pictures and feedback…looks like a lot of work to maintain the shine

It is A LOT of work to get them shinny clean again once they are not. Best to keep them cleaned all the time if that’s what you want.

Will/does your pontoon sit in the water seasonally, or is it on a trailer or lift or sea legs, etc…thus the entire boat staying out of the water when not in use? That is key in keeping pontoons shinny clean over time. If out of the water when not in use, it still requires a periodic wipe down of the pontoons, but nothing much.

Once clean, they also make products that help slow things sticking to the pontoons, and thus making it easier to wipe them down to keep clean. However, the type of water the boat is in impacts the effectiveness of such products greatly.

Here is our pontoons after 8 years in the water. It’s a 2017. Shark hide applied once when brand new. Otherwise sits on Sea Legs when not in use. I wipe the pontoons down about once a season during our 3 months of usage here in a freshwater lake in Michigan. Sorry, not the best pictures from the last 2 seasons. Don’t get our boat until tomorrow for this summer.

 

[BigKahuna]

GEEEZZZ, not sure about the pure white look. Thank you for the pictures and feedback

It doesn't stay white. It'll eventually go back to its aluminum look!

 

[sunedog]

It doesn't stay white. It'll eventually go back to its aluminum look!

Yes, and it only takes a few weeks. Has never been an issue for me.