Thread: oxidation removal

does anybody know what work best to remove oxidation and old water lines? My entire boat needs it done bad.

The only way to remove oxidation is to grind off enough gel coat to get down to unaffected gel. If the gel is oxidized badly enough, you'll grind off all the gel, leaving a fairly rough surface on the boat. Go slowly and try a buffer with a fine polishing compound on a small area to see how it goes. I'd check in the boat restoration forum on Bass Boat Central at Bassboat Restoration: BBC Boards

for the best advice.

forgot to mention that my boat is a 17ft aluminum grumman so no paint to worry about.

here is a link to an article from scrapper, it is excellent advise on restoring a glass boat. i followed his directions mostly with a few changes that i took but it did and excellent job for me. it really added life back to my old red glass boat

Fiberglass gelcoat restoration

I have a painted alum. jon. I used foaming tile & shower cleaner on both my boat & trailer. They turned out good.
Gary

i seen on another site muriatic acid will work good be careful of the fumes maybe wear a respirator

I've used WD40 before on my painted aluminum boat with fair results....

Originally Posted by rnvinc

I've used WD40 before on my painted aluminum boat with fair results....

wd is awsome... but it ony lasts till it gets dried out again... makes a big difference in the paint till then...
it also works on car paint.. have a 2001 mack truck.. the red paint was looking more like pink... i worked it over real good with wd and then washed it with dawn dish soap.. then waxed it... it has stayed red till this day..looks good.

I use White Lightning. U can buy it at Napa Auto parts. It is a alluminum cleaner like what u use to clean car rims.Mix it 50/50 . Wet the boat with water, spray with cleaner let it soak about 3 min it will foam up. just rinse off. you want believe it.Some stains might take a couple of repeats to remove .It is the easyest to use .I have never had it mess up any paint or decals . But dont let it dry on the alluminum it will spot it. If ithat happens reclean. It is sold by the gallon about $13.00 I think . that is enough to do you bot about 3 times.

Originally Posted by Nomad

I use White Lightning. U can buy it at Napa Auto parts. It is a alluminum cleaner like what u use to clean car rims.Mix it 50/50 . Wet the boat with water, spray with cleaner let it soak about 3 min it will foam up. just rinse off. you want believe it.Some stains might take a couple of repeats to remove .It is the easyest to use .I have never had it mess up any paint or decals . But dont let it dry on the alluminum it will spot it. If ithat happens reclean. It is sold by the gallon about $13.00 I think . that is enough to do you bot about 3 times.

Went to our NAPA store and they had the aluminum cleaner under a different name. It's good that I cut it like you said and followed their directions except for using it in the sun. I had to hit some areas a couple extra times but it sure made it look better. The guy who owned the boat before me had used the cleaner and it turned it white but that looks better than the black. Now to get some polish and a buffer. Thanks for your input on this thread. Saved me some bucks. Ferdi aka Fred