How do I polish my lower units & props?
 

My cool polished lower units and props are getting tarnished (is that the right term?). I have tried polishing by hand with Mothers, but that is extreme work – especially in this heat. What kind of machine buffer should I get and how do you do the props?

I wonder what is in the water that causes that? Is the water there real hard? I wonder if like a CLR or something like that would work. You could opt to loose maybe a little speed and wax them. Maybe a coat of Rainex or something like that. Never Dull would be my last suggestion for getting them clean and keeping them that way. Those lowers look SO nice.

Jon

Oh and if all that faild your daughters can do it for you!!! Remember to tell that that is the price of driving dads toy :D:D

Jon, don't you sleep?:D Little Princess helps all the time, she especially likes to detail the transom.

Yes, Havasu (and the river) water is well known for being hard. Really works over the props quickly.

What I really need is some kind of power tool. Somebody out there must polish props - don't they use some tool?

On the props, I would start with ON-OFF hull cleaner and a brush to remove the mineral deposits. Then I would use a 6" air sander with a polishing pad to do the lowers and the wheels. Other than that it's nothing but elbow grease......sorry, that's all I know.
Robert

Buffing wheel bro :D:D

I sleep but when it is 100 degrees and 30000000000% humidity then it is hard to. Fan is not working well. I should go down to the shop and fire up the AC down there :D:D

Havasu Water
 

U.Toys,
Every one says salt water is hard on your boat but when I come home it rinses off, after being at Havasu it takes a while but that stuff wears off in the salt water up here.

Soooo, trailer that thing up here and play in the salt with it and that stuff will just wear off.:D :D

Your boat will be even faster too!!!:) :) :)

See ya at the fall heatwave,

Caleb

there is an angle grinder style of pro grade buffer. It looks just like a angle grinder but has a vari speed throttle. It works great on the hull too.

Muratic Acid will clean the deposits off the prop, and wash down with H2O, dry and spray WD-40 on them. Just be careful where you use the Muratic Acid, it will leave a Mark!
MD

prop....CLR or lime away...that **** will fall off!

I use straight vinegar. It is cheap & cleans up water spots with very little work. I have a spray bottle I put it in. I spray on, sit back, then start wiping down & comes up spotless. Since I do not have a polished lower I do not know how it will work on them. Try small area first. Works good on chrome.

Run aground in a sandy area. That ALWAYS worked for me!

:eek:

Jennifer

Jewelers rouge and a buffing wheel will make em look like chrome

If you have pitting, start with with a deburring wheel. I'm looking through Grainger and they have several different forms. Some mount on bench grinders, some on die grinders (pad and shaft) some are even available on belts. They also come in different grits. Anyways, use the deburring wheel to get started and then move to the different buffing compounds. If you are looking to do this only once in a while, a spiral sewn wheel will work ok. Sometimes I'll start with a emery (for stainless) and then move to the stainless compound which leaves a pretty good finish on both aluminum and stainless. Generally, I've found that the rouge only works on solt metals like gold.

In all honesty, the finish almost looks like hard water spots. Generally, I use Lime-a-way, but the other acids will also work. If the lower unit is bare aluminum, I'd test a small spot first as they may react with the aluminum. I believe the result is lots of smoke and foam.

There are two possible things going on here. One is solved with a light acid (vinegar, clr, lime away, etc..) and the other with a buffing wheel. I doubt that the stainless prop is acutally seriously oxidizing, just getting hard water deposits, so polishing besides being a pain, is really the wrong way to go about it. The aluminum might be oxidizing, but try the vinegar first. It just makes stuff go away. I made the mistake several years ago of trying to polish out that crap only to have a friend tell me that it was hard water deposits. It looked like oxidation to me, but buffing was going no where fast. Vinegar or lime away does the trick. I keep some in a squirt bottle in the boat and apply when pulling out of the ramp.

Caution! Do not put any of these acids on anything other than paint, powdercoat, fiberglass, stainless, etc. No plated steel! It will go right through it in a couple of weeks, so I would caution you with water spots on the engine unless you have all stainless fasteners!

Re: How do I polish my lowre units & props?
 

Uncle Toys, Use lime away on your props. You will use a bottle on the prop but pour it on and rinse with water. Sometimes you nave to use a brush for the corners

Visual Contact

For the lower housing, use Tripoli compound and then White Rouge, because its aluminum, Then for the prop use the tripoli compound, and then Jewlers rouge because its stainless. You can use an electric drill with buffers attached do acomplish your goal. All of these items can be found at an ace hardware store or home depot. Good luck.

Ask your wife to polish your lower unit..... mine does it daily to mine :D :D :D :D

I will second this...you can also use toilet boil cleaner that contains acid, and then just wash with water. The calcium content at Havasu is very high, but this stuff will take it right off.

My polished lowers are getting a little like yours, I am going to use a diegrinder with a polishing wheel with some red polishing compound to get them bright agian. Then I am going to use some zoopseal on them. I got my order in a few days ago but I cannot test it as it is a two part system that you mix and once mixed it is only good for 3 hours. I will let you know how it works. Here is the link:

http://www.zoops.com/zoopseal.asp

I bought it from www.stylinconcepts.com

I use hydrochloric Acid (professional plumbers store or in the marine industry it's call Zing red bottle) but for a chrome look I use 3-m heavyduty rubbing compound a 100%wool buffer pad and about 2500 rpm's I use a dewalt variable speen sander/polisher.

Home Depot carries a nice little buffing wheel and compound set. You get three sizes of wheels, an arbor, and 3 compounds. Its in the tool area.

My gawd man................don not put any type of acid on bare aluminum........Jesus mighty man that sucker will turn white in a matter of seconds.......

I've polished probably 25 Sportbike frames in the last 6 or so years and anything with alkaline(degreaser) or any type of acidic based cleaner will ruin your day....

If it's too hard to rub out by hand then get some red compound and run a polishing wheel on it........just like the Home Depot stuff......you can put it on a high speed drill.....I do.....works great....

But first try and find some liquid compound with some light cleaner in it........I use a product called Southern Shine.....not sure if ya can get it up there but I swear by it.....anybody that does polish work will understand....you can take this stuff and work a very large area at one time....makes it much easier to "maintain" the shine.......;)

I had a buddy that soaked a carb in toilet bowl cleaner. All that he had left were the steel parts.

Lime away or CLR on your props only. Use a brush or scotch bright pad for stuborn spots. Metal polish for your lowers. BTW, the Lime Away or CLR works great on your exaust tips also.

waxxx onnnn waxxxx offff Uncle Toysum

sweet Ford in the background!

I just bought a truck just like that.

Shorgasm,

I have used acidic tiolet bowl cleaner several times on props. It will make them shine like new, and it won't turn them white. I also know of a few marine dealers that use Muratic acid and it works well also. I don't know about on the lowers, but on stainless props it works great.

I use on-off on the prop and wet sand the drives

Thanks guys, that’s great info. I bought some Lime Away, but what kind of brush do you use? Do you just spray some on and brush the stainless? In the next couple of days I will get over to the Home Depot and get the buffing wheel and compound set – thanks Intolerant1. Wild Horses, I was wondering when that would come out :)

Wet sand with 600 grit then with 1000 grit then 2000 grit then hand rub with mothers mag and wheel chrome polish,I did mine tonight it looks much better

AUTOSOL........15 minutes........just make sure you put a coat of wax on afterwards or it will get some white deposits on it when water hits it then dries............Doug

I used Autosol on the air conditioning reciever/drier tank under the hood of my 88 full sized Blazer and had it polished to chrome in a half an hour just using a rag and some elbow grease, my buddies couldnt believe it........Doug