cleaning pontoons and keep them looking good!!!!!!!!!!!!

[plane jim]

Hello-I cleaned my pontoons and they looked great, two day trip at the lake and now they look poor again-Is there a sealer I need for Alum or did I do something wrong. I cleaned them with the NAPA ALUM BRIGHTNER with my hudson sprayer and they looked great-what is the secret to keep them looking decent-thanks in advance.

[Ron Burgundy]

A few rum and cokes make my pontoons look much better.

[plane jim]

That's what I think too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I could clean them again and spray a clear coat on them !!!!

[curtiscapk]

Sharkhide.

[Bamaman]

Sharkhide.

My local boat dealers never heard of it--tells you what quality operations they have. I picked up a quart for $41 at another boat dealer 35 miles north on Saturday.

It's available online if your local dealers don't carry it. Takes 2 coats, and you just wipe it on with a soft, lint free cloth (diaper.) It has a thin consistency.

[DonCabo]

@ Ron Burgundy.....

[ronb]

Is sharkhide always shiny? I like the dull luster of freshly cleaned/acid washed tubes..

My tubes were cleaned somewhere around 4/25-4/30 by the dealership before I bought it.

Here is my pontoon on June 15, 2012, its all clean and purty.

June_15_2012.jpg (45.55 KiB) Viewed 4019 times

And a couple from last week, July 3, 2012...

IMG-20120703-01655.jpg (95.92 KiB) Viewed 4018 times

IMG-20120703-01654.jpg (82.61 KiB) Viewed 4018 times

They got all dark splotchy and nasty looking.. thinking about cleaning them again soon! But I don't want to keep acid cleaning them every couple months...
FWIW, I was told by the guy who cleaned them before I bought it, that they use toilet bowl cleaner on the tubes before they present them for sale, so now when I look at the tubes in their current condition all I see are sh*t streaks...

-ron

[schmir]

Sharkhide doesn't make them shine. It just keeps the shine. Highly reccomended!

[ronb]

Does anybody have pictures of it after being used on NON-shiny toon? Personally I would spend a few hours and shine them up, but SWMBO says 'No Shiny Tubes!'

-ron

[BobG]

SWMBO says 'No Shiny Tubes!'

Hmm... Epoxy Paint?

[plane jim]

ronb,
My pontoons did the same after cleaning them with acid from NAPA -looked great and two trips later (look like crap)
I am going to acid wash again and shark hide them. If I was a real man I would polish the toons like the Utube video of the guy sanding a truck fuel tank with extreme fine sandpaper and polished out with 12 inch orbital buffer and some kind of clay looking wax bar-it look like a mirror-but I worry about removing material for appearance only thru sanding and buffing, etching or other means-they don't leak but look ugly-plus I like floating more than buffing.