Aluminum boat polish

[Xtremewelder]

It's time for me to polish my neglected boat! Will Adam's metal polish help me out here and what pad should I use? I have a Porter Cable Da. Hopefully someone can help me out.

 

Thanks

Marc

[Last_cast]

Good question. I took am interested!

I'm sure you'll get an answer soon.

[Chadley]

My opinion - I have the SK and have used the metal polish on a lot of diamond plate, my kitchen appliances, my bike and anything I can find I love this stuff.

I would use metal polish 1 with the orange pad and then Metal polish #2 with a gray or red pad. You probably won't be able to use the pads for anything else, they will be black when your finished.

On a side note - your hull will be so shiny you can blind the fish

[1911A1]

I sacrificed a microfiber pad to do some metal polishing seemed to work good also

[Xtremewelder]

I figured I would ruin a couple pads so I'll order a few more. I'm waiting on my MB tomorrow before I order anything. Thanks for the advice.

[LT1xL82]

People have been known to put a towel between the buffer pad and the aluminum. It is popular with the Airstream trailer crowd for trailers built before "clear coat" was used. I know 1 company makes a towel specifically to do this with Cyclo polishers.

[Cork]

I'm a big fan of metal polish 1 and 2 but there may be better options for the boat. The people who polish airplanes and wind stream campers use mostly cyclos with nuvite or similar diminishing abrasive polishes.

[Chonke]

I agree with cork, from my experience metal polish 1 and 2 are more light duty metal and aluminum polishes. For heavier stuff, ive had to look elsewhere. 

 

However, id use at least a blue foam pad for metal polish 1. That way you get more cutting power. Then id use metal polish 2 with a white or orange foam pad. 

[Xtremewelder]

Awesome thanks for the responses. I didn't even think about a airstream forum to see what they use.

[TheWolf]

Awesome thanks for the responses. I didn't even think about a airstream forum to see what they use.

 

Only very old Airstream trailers are bare aluminum.  In the mid-60's they started using a clear coat.  It is not the same type of clear coat as on a car.  So when the trailers are polished, they are actually polishing the clear coat, not the bare metal, hence the use of an abrasive polishing compound.

 

My guess is that your boat is bare metal, so you should test an inconspicuous area with Metal Polish on a rag, to see if it turns the rag black.

 

If the metal is bare, and you use Metal Polish, you will end up with a much shinier surface, but will have to polish all the aluminum to make it match.

 

Here are some pics of a pontoon boat that I worked on this last weekend:

 

BEFORE

 

 

DURING

 

 

AFTER

 

 

The aluminum was bare, and I polished it with Metal Polish #1, using a blue foam pad on a machine.  Be well advised that you will end up with thin, runny black liquid from the polishing, and it makes a huge mess.  If you are going to use a machine polisher, mask off anything that you don't want stained with black sling, and plan on spending more time cleaning up the black residue than you did polishing.  Machine polishing is the easy part, cleanup is more work.  Use cheap towels, as they will be stained.  I also found that drying out the pads with paper towels, to remove the runny, black liquid, helped reduce the sling or splatter.  I dried the pads after polishing every 2 feet of the pontoon.

 

My advice to you...try some Revive to hand polish the scuffed areas, and skip polishing the aluminum, unless you want to spend a couple days working on it.  If you do use Metal Polish with a machine, wear gloves and old clothes.  I also found out that Revive will remove any splatters from hard surfaces, like anodized aluminium rails, Dawn Dish soap will mostly clean the black off your skin.  I think that the black residue will permanently stain anything porous like the cover or seats.