After almost 20yrs we decided to have our old seawall and dock torn down at the lake and replaced. They started the demolition yesterday and said that it would take 3wks to build the new seawall, dock and boathouse. So, I had to pull our boats out and after getting the pontoon boat on the trailer, I decided that while it is out that I might as well change the oil on the engine and in the foot…that is a lot easier than doing it on the boat lift. And, after looking at it, I think that I will give brightening up the pontoons, a go. Has anyone here done this or know of a good cleaner to use to brightened them up? I have already pressure washed them…they just need to be brightened. Thanks for y’all’s responses.
Funny you should ask this. I just did a test spot on our pontoon not even 10 minutes ago and was going to ask @Hotshot what kind of wheels and polish he uses to really get a shine. I don’t know if I’ll go that far though. I used Purple Power Aluminum Brightener. For the little spot I did I was pretty impressed. I haven’t even cleaned the calcium deposits or whatever they are off of the toons yet so it wasn’t a thorough test but I was still pleased. I’m sure there is better stuff out there but it was only $8 a gallon and I can get it locally. I just put in a spray bottle and kept misting, let it sit for a bit, and rinsed. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow when it’s light out and post them. If your pontoons are polished the brightener will make the aluminum look dull. If your pontoons look like mine it’ll make them look new and shiny…lol. When I say “polished” I’m talking about those pontoons that almost look like they have a chrome finish.
Great…I am glad I posted because you will put me on the right track. I saw a short video of a guy using the Purple Power Alum Brightner on Youtube…it looked like it was doing a very good job. If you get the chance…your offer to post some pics would be great. Thank you
And, my pontoons are not polished.
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I’d like to do this with the fenders on my trailer.
Buffer and assortment of buffing wheels with good old Mother’s Mag and Aluminum Polish should get the job done. I doubt any of you will want to go through the process than Sean does to clean, brighten and polish things. It’s lengthy and most people around here faint when they hear Hydrofluoric Acid.
Local chemical company here makes a hydrofluoric solution mainly targeting pontoon boats. Does a great job. I buy cases of it because it’s absolutely fantastic for removing mud stains , fall out and oxidation on vinyl. It’s like $6.50 or $7 /gal.
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HF is what @Hotshot uses. He talks like it’s pretty potent stuff. I’ve looked all over for it locally but no luck. I haven’t tried a marina though. When I was looking for it I needed it to clean up a transmission before rebuilding so marine never crossed my mind.
You tease! You can’t come on here and make claims like that and not drop a name or number! When you say mud stains, do y’all have red mud or brown over yonder?
His is very potent, believe me. Maybe too potent.
I’ve never seen brown mud. Of course it’s red. I don’t know if they ship it or not. I’ll ask.
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Of course it is lol
I’m interested too.
Wait wait wait. You use hf on red mud stains on bricks? I always have some on hand but never even thought to try it on a house. What’s your dilution and dwell time?
I believe HF is a good rust remover and aluminum brightner as well
Yep, all acids are good rust removers and brighteners. There are just different strengths of acid and HF is one of the stronger ones.
Racer,
What’s the mix ratio on removing oxidation? I have a case sitting on the trailer.
Thanks
Here are a few pictures. We just got this pontoon and the pontoons are near as bad as our old one that is still in the water. It probably has too much crust on it to even mess with cleaning. Anyways, first one is after using a turbo nozzle. You have to get the thick scaly stuff off or the acid won’t work in that area. Use a hand held sprayer bottle. Mist it on and keep going back over it as you see little runs or spots of the brightener disappearing. You don’t have to let it sit too long so experiment a little. First time maybe rinse after 10 seconds or so. If you let it sit too long it turns the aluminum whiter or hazes it more. Spray brightener from the bottom up and rinse from top down. I just used a garden hose to rinse since it was quiet. I even did the railings up around the top by the seats. I didn’t let it sit as long but it didn’t hurt the vinyl seats or the carpet. Definitely test before doing so though. I just soaked the carpet and seats before spraying it and gave everything a good rinse.
You can see it fizzing.
This picture you can see where I didn’t remove all of the scale below the water line. It looks kind of white in the picture but they don’t look white at all. It’s more of a dull aluminum shine but still a million times better than they were.
If you look to the left or, the top of the pontoon, all I did was took a green scouring pad and spent 30 seconds rubbing it. It made a huge difference and gave it a more polished look. This winter I might even pull out the electric polisher without some polishing compound and give them a mirror shine. The scouring pad will have to do for now. Still looks great though.
Here you can see the bottom part of the railing. The picture doesn’t do it justice. I was happy with how it turned out. The aluminum on the railing almost had a yellow or gold tint and it shined right up. I probably left it on like 20-30 seconds.
As long as you can get the scale off below the water line I definitely recommend using a brightener. I watched this video the other day looking for pontoon brighteners and just did the same thing with the kind I had. That’s why I said to keep misting as it disappears.
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Excellent tutorial…and excellent results. That is what I will use…and I will post some pics to this thread when I get it done…probably be a week or so before I get back up to the lake to do it. Thank you
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Case of what?
Hydrofluoric acid…
