Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Man, I've had my new pontoon out 4 times, and its got lake scum forming on the pontoons already. How do you keep this stuff off? I like it better when they look all shiny and new.

I've seen the youtube videos, where a guy takes a plane sander, and uses some 180 grit or something, and basically just sands the stuff off. With something called "Toonbrite" or some kind of polish. Thats all fine and well, but is there something I can do to keep it from forming on there, in the first place? Would hosing them down when I get the boat back to the house, help any?

Next question. How do you maintain the shiny new look of your fence? Mine seems to have a sort of haze on it, like new cars get when they're dirty. You just grab the carnuba car wash and wash the fence? My fence also seems to have some kind of... I don't know... thin plastic on it. Not real sure what it is. Its not just bare metal, I know that much.

Just did something about this myself...... in fact, our boat is at the marina now and when we get back to the lake this Friday, I'll pick it up.

I had only 9 months use before I couldn't stand the black, dirty look any longer on our new toons. After reading here, extensively here's what I did.

Ordered 2 quarts of Toon Brite....... figured being BIO DEGRADABLE I would be OK to use it. When I read the fine print on the jug, says do NOT use on a lake, or river as MAY cause a fish kill.

We don't own a trailer, and I was going to use this on our lift..... directly over top of the lake.... I didn't want to be the one to kill every fish around for a mile.

I bought some commercial Scotch Brite Pads....... GRAY ones for medium cutting, and white for final finish and used Simple Green cleaner.... spent 6 hours on the outside of 1 toon..... looked nice and bright again, with solid fine scratches.... I only went back and forth horizonally, no circular motion. Doesn't look bad, but NO WAY can I do the rest of it. I was beat. Wouldn't be able to properly get to the back end, or center nose toon anyways.

Dealer won't let me do the work on their property due to liability insurance reasons... I get it.

In the end, I took it to them the day before we left the lake a week ago, they are using my Toon Brite, then sealing it with the 3 quarts of SHARKHIDE I also purchased . $ 200 for labor charges total.

I hope it is up to my expectations, but I'm sure it won't as I'm a perfectionist. I'll update again on Saturday, after I get the boat back.

I told the dealer, if I was them, I would highly push any new Toon customer to getting Sharkhide put on before the boat goes in the water the first time. Supposedly, I should see about 3 years life from the Sharkhide, and I'm to get the left over material back, incase I bump a dock and need to touch up.

So what is shark hide, just a coating you can spray on there?

Also, how'd you get your boat to the dealer with no trailer?

And here is this video, said it took them very little time to do both toons all the way. Can't remember, think it was like an hour for both. They use what looks to be just an autobody plane sander. Air powered.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84av5o4HlRM

photonfanatic wrote:So what is shark hide, just a coating you can spray on there?

Also, how'd you get your boat to the dealer with no trailer?

And here is this video, said it took them very little time to do both toons all the way. Can't remember, think it was like an hour for both. They use what looks to be just an autobody plane sander. Air powered.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84av5o4HlRM

Shark Hide is a clear sealant that you put on with a clean baby diaper. The chemicals dry up very quickly and it leaves a clear coating on the aluminum. You can Google it. You only put it on AFTER you've cleaned the toons to your liking. I bought mine from Overton's as they had a 15% your order and free shipping going on.

http://www.overtons.com/modperl/product ... 649&r=view

I drove the boat on the lake to the dealer. They lifted it out with their fork truck and then moved it to the back end of their property and put it on foam blocks, then I covered the boat.

I've mentioned this on another forum, but not sure if I did here or not, but an easy way to keep the scum off is Lemon Pledge. Clean your toons very well, then apply a coating of Lemon Pledge. Each time you come in, wipe them down with the LP again. It only take a very few minutes after each use, but it keep a protective coat on them and they stay shiny and new looking. My neighbor got me to doing this after seeing his 10 year bass boat that still looks like he pulled it off of the showroom floor.

its a boat its gona get dirty, you may wanna take up golf

MH Hawker wrote:its a boat its gona get dirty, you may wanna take up golf

There's a term called "Pride of Ownership". Some, including myself, like a clean boat. It will also keep the resale value. I plan on getting top dollar for my boat when/if the time comes to sell it. I hate to loose money because I didn't want to take the time to do simple maintenance.

Besides....golf is way too frustrating.

I'm with you my friend! I like my stuff spic and span. We spend a lot of hard earned money on this hobby. To drop that kind of cash and not take the time to keep them looking as new as possible is totally lost on me.
I clean my toons with a scotch brite pad every other time we go out. Takes ten minutes per toon while I'm floating in the water and we are parked anyway. I'm pretty persnickety about the inside as well. My family laughs at me but it's my boat, my money and my way. Deal with it..lol.
Heres a question for everyone...why haven't the pontoon makers anodized the pontoons like they have everything else? The rails , deck edging and Bimini supports are all anodized and look great with very little care. It would make a huuuuge difference in the look of the toons and would eliminate the dis colorization issue and all that scrubbing.....haven't figured that one out. Must be some reason I haven't thought of...
Anyway, scrub the hell out of it!

If you're going to leave the boat in the water, the bottom's going to be green. Best thing is to use scotchbrite pads every couple of weeks--heading off the problem on front end. It just takes a short time to lightly scrub them--and much less time if you assign everyone on the boat their own scotchbrite to help you.

I've never kept my pontoon boats in the water for extended periods of time, and my first one lasted 28 years. A lift of some sort may seem expensive on front end, but keeping that boat out of the water and out of the water makes them so much cleaner and longer lasting.

I'm spoiled to having a steel framed boathouse with posts driven into the lake bottom--and a full roof overhead.

You don't really need to sand your toons with anything. The acid based cleaners work to get the grunge off, but then you need to use a metal polish and a dual action polisher to bring back the new boat shine.

MH Hawker wrote:its a boat its gona get dirty, you may wanna take up golf

Yeah but don't the balls get dirty when hit in the ruff?

The investment in a lift will pay itself back ten fold or more easily. A lift will last for years and years with minimal maintenance. I have an old J model Hyra Hoist that is probably 25 yrs old that I paid 1850.00 for . It was already in a slip at the Marina so I bought the lift and moved my boat to that slip.

There's really nothing to go bad on these lifts other than maybe anew hose and some clamps every 5-10 years . If the motor goes out ( mine is mounted on a bracket on one of the uprights on the dock) , you can pick up a motor at an electrical supply for 60.00. Pretty simple.

For the money we spend on these things, the upfront cost of a used lift is nothing compared to the benefits you get by having your boat covered and up out of the water.

Most folks won't move a lift when they leave a marina , they will sell it. Too much hassle to move. if you put the word out to your marina operator that you are looking for a lift , when those slips come open you can and should be able to pick up an older model for very reasonable .

Agreed on the keeping it on a lift and covered boat house. Ours is on the lift, under a roof unless we are it moving on the lake. Occasionally we tie it up to the floating dock for a couple of hours if we are going right back out on it again.

My issues are with oxidation and that the bright shiny aluminum have turned oxidized and blackened..... I like to keep everything looking like new. I'm not interested in a mirror polished finish, just the look it had when it was brand new....... Last November

Can't wait to see the results when we get back to the lake, and I pick it up at the marina Friday afternoon.

Cleaning those 3 pontoon. I didn't realize how much a pain in the a$$ it would be. I've been keeping my boat in a lake slip at the marina, so this isn't the first time I've done this. Nasty slime hardens on the toons. I even had a snake living under the motor mount.

Took a day, pulled the boat out on it's trailer and hauled it home to pressure wash before it really dried hard and knocked some of the crud off. Then I tried some Simple Green and it really didn't touch it. Next, I've gone through 3 quarts of Star Brite Aluminum Ultimate Aluminum Hull Cleaner/Restorer and it did a fair job (besides killing all the grass under the boat).

The real difficult part, of course, is the middle toon. I've been using a house washing extension on my pressure washer, it kinda sorta helps but there is always that couple of feet way up in there that get missed. I had my boat Sharkhided by my selling dealer. The hull looked good until I started keeping it in the lake. Now, I think I'm resigned to that fine gray patina.

Oh, yeah .. the snake. I got home and first thought some fisherman threw his humongous jelly-worm at my slip and missed, hooking my motor. I've found bait and hooks hung up in my dock lines before. Raising the engine when trailering out at the ramp must have pinched off the little critter in the motor mount and left most of him hanging down. So much for my anti-theft snake. It wasn't doing it's job keeping roosting birds off my boat anyhow.

If you really want to keep it looking like new, when you bring it home from the dealer the first time, give it a light coat of polyurethane, and put it in your basement and keep it dry. Do not, I repeat do NOT put it in a lake. Lakes are big dirty pools of gunk that will totally trash your beautiful aluminum sculpture.

Yeah I guess I should have mentioned that I keep the boat at home, not at the lake. I couldn't leave it there. I can't let that thing out of my sight! I want it where I can keep an eye on it, and do things to it right here at the house.

So its just left over lake scum. Do you guys that don't worry about the scum, not wash your trucks either? Anyway it looks like the sharkhide is what I'll be trying. Lasting 3 years sounds right up my alley. No maintenance, once applied. Hopefully.