Cleaning powder coated items
 

What's the best thing to use to clean and polish powder coated pieces? Such as battery boxes, fire ext. brackets, grab rails, vents, etc.

A good cleaner wax works pretty well.

Dave,

My husband usually cleans the boat, but I buy all the supplies. I asked him this morning what he uses specifically on powder coated, anodized and polished parts.

For anodized parts: Pledge works extremely well and will also help to hide any scratches if there are any. The problem is that it leaves a little oily residue. Typically in boat shows most anodized parts are pledged because it looks good under the lights. He said to be careful of a lot of cleaner waxes, because they contain a high acidic value (vinegar) and over time can dull or even strip anodizing.

If you are going to use a cleaner wax for the whole boat as well as powder coated and anodized parts, he recommends speed gloss over all of the other cleaners. You can pick that up at www.performanceboatcandy.com and use coupon code RDP20 for 20% off.

For polished parts: For maintaining and restoring dull polished parts easily quite simply nothing compares to metal wax. He has tried them all (Mothers, Metal Polish, etc) and for the least amount of elbow grease in the quickest amount of time metal wax is the best. You can purchase that at www.cpperformance.com and type coupon code RDSUX for free shipping on metal wax products.

I realize that came off as a bit of a commercial, but because of his website he tries everything and since we get discounts on most products, we figured we'd pass the discounts along.

Stacy
:)

Dana, owner of Dana Marine told me to only use lemon pledge on my parts when I bought them new from him. That is all I have used so far and they still look great. He told me to put a coat on all parts going in the water before I launch the boat to help protect the parts.

Which metal wax is it?? There seems to be a few different ones, what color is it?? Thanks

You buy it as a kit.. Metal Wax works differently then most other polishes.. That gets into a whole spiel that I don't much feel like delivering I'm not a sales rep for them or anything.. LOL

Readers Digest version, most polishes will clog the "pores" of metal with their polish while polishing.. Metal Wax doesn't do that, and in order to get a long lasting "bright" shine the 1st step it to pull the old polishing compounds out of the metal.

1st off Wear gloves..

Get a microfiber towel and get a corner of it "damp" with water. Put 5 - 6 drops of green cleaner on the rag, and begin wiping the polished part. It will clean just about anything off metal.. Stains, and all sorts of stuff you wouldn't think would ever come out.

Next step kind of depends on the shape of the polished part. If it's in good shape I just skip to the pink rub it in / buff it off and I'm done. It's not hours of polishing until your arms fall off like Mothers..

If the part isn't in perfect polished condition, take some of the yellow paste, give it a good polish real quick and get it uniformly polished, wipe it off, drop the pink on their as a clarifier (brightens the metal up to a ridiculous shine), give it a decent once over, and you're parts will have never looked that good.


For my comparison I had to polish a ski pole from scratch (raw).. 1st sanding / steel wool / and then polish. When i got to the polishing stage I used mothers with a power ball on one end and I used the yellow / pink metal wax on the other..

From the steel wool state metal wax took me 1/2 the time to polish then mothers.

There is a pretty long thread about it on my board with peoples reviews of the product / pictures of projects etc.. and everyone has been pretty happy with it. I can post the link if you want or pm it to you, but I don't want to come off like spamming my board on here.

Metalwax doesn't advertise with me and I have no financial interest in the company either.. Just tried lots of polishes over the years and finally found one that works a little better than the others. It's still work.. just less.

I have some pictures of befores and afters that various people have put up on my board, but for the life of me I can't see where you upload photo's here?
RD

COOL, THANKS FOR THE INFO. PM ME ALL THE INFO SO I CAN CHECK OUT THE PICS. THANKS AGAIN

Thanks for the tips. I try to opt for a household type solution rather than the "Snake Oil" stuff.

What house hold products do you typically use on polished parts? or to restore polished parts? I'm always up for trying something new. :)


If you want the best interior cleaner you will ever use try "Scrubbing Bubbles" same stuff people use to clean their bathrooms.. (Trust me)
People are often using magic erasers to clean their interiors, but it takes a micro layer of vinyl off with it each time, and will leave a kind of "dull" appearance albeit bleach white clean..

Scrubbing bubbles will get into all the little cracks and crevaces, an make it look brand new without hurting the vinyl.

Another cleaning tip from your buddy Dave.. ;) :D


Boat Waxing -

All fancy cleaning products aside, the absolute best wax I have EVER found for waxing gel coat (not paint) is called "Gel Gloss" it is sold at home depot in a pink tin can.. it costs about 3 bucks and one can will do a 28' boat probably 4 times. (maybe more) it is typically used to "restore" and deep clean fiberglass showers and make them look new. It's as simple as rub on / let it haze up and buff off.. (very easy to use). I have been using it for years, and people ask me all the time how I keep my boat looking like it does. I wax my boat twice a year btw.. Becareful as to which spray waxes / cleaners you might use because most of them strip wax. I do not believe that Performance Boat candy strips it, or if it does it's very minimal.

Two household items I use constantly for ya.. ;)

RD

I used neverdull on the stainless and the billett f.e. brrackets