Author Topic: polishing a aluminum boat? (Read 11836 times)

75johndeere · « **on:** June 18, 2012, 06:19:53 PM »

Has anyone ever taken a older aluminum boat and brought it to a high polish? i got the 16' bayrunner from my dad a few years ago and it has been setting next to the house waiting to be rebuildt ever since. well i jumped in head first right now its gutted and waiting on parts but while waiting i was going to flip it and try and get some of the pits out the part that i hit with a buffer came to high polish really quick but had a ton of pits in it. so i guess my question is does it affect fishing having a 16' "flasher"

floating above them? i picked up 400/800/1000/1500/2000 grit sand paper and a lot of polish so hopefully it works was thinking about bottom coating under the waterline. anyways back to cutting floorboards ill keep everyone posted on how it goes.

FC · « **Reply #1 on:** June 18, 2012, 06:23:30 PM »

If it was my boat I wouldn't be polishing the bottom, I would be painting it!

bloodhound · « **Reply #2 on:** June 18, 2012, 07:58:23 PM »

ohh man if you start sanding your gonna have to buy a couple polishing wheels, clay polish bars, tyvecs suit, respirator, and so on. i polished a lot of aluminum and it is a pain in the bum. i would acid wash it and leave it silver

huntnphool · « **Reply #3 on:** June 18, 2012, 08:03:16 PM »

It makes any aluminum boat look great but its a lot of work! You better think hard and think twice because once you start there is no going back.

First you need to sand it. If you look close at your aluminum you will see tiny lines through it. You must sand out these lines starting with 180 grit and ending around 800, I used a DA palm sander.

From that point the polishing isn't too bad. I started with jewelers rouge, rough cut at first and then with a final polish cut. I can now use liquid or paste polishing compounds and it polishes right up like a aluminum wheel.

I tried Sharkhide when it first came out, actually bought a couple cans of it thinking it would be perfect. At that time the directions had you wipe it on. I found that there was no uniform, good looking way, to apply it and have all the polish work that I had done look good. If you could maybe thin it with acetone or something and spray it you might be able to get a better finished product, for me the hand wiping application completely countered the polish work. It also dulled the shine a little bit. I stipped it all off and have not put any on it since.

My trailer is polished as well. The diamond plate wheel well areas look great once you are done, the only issue is you need to go around each individual diamond, once finished polishing, and clean the black residue from the bottom edge of each one. This quickly became way too much work. I pulled the boat and took the trailer to Line X and had the wheel well areas done, turned out great and adds a little grip when standing on in the rain or after pulling the boat out of the water.

I need to do it a couple times each year to keep it looking good. My problem is I have bunk rails and need to slide the boat back off the trailer, to access the area that are covered by the rails, then crank it back onto the trailer.

Good luck.

75johndeere · « **Reply #4 on:** June 19, 2012, 02:12:11 AM »

the only problem with polishing it the stiffiners throughout it looks like tony04 boat on page 4 but has rails on top of it http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,90981.45.html

75johndeere · « **Reply #5 on:** June 19, 2012, 05:58:39 AM »

Think i figured out how to load photos

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huntnphool · « **Reply #6 on:** June 19, 2012, 11:16:47 AM »

If you are going to be using it in the salt you will need to polish more than twice a year to keep it looking good, better think long and hard before you decide to do it.

Woodchuck · « **Reply #7 on:** June 19, 2012, 11:20:00 AM »

Ok Phool, I know you have a pic of yours sitting in nice calm water getting that double mirror effect.

75johndeere · « **Reply #8 on:** June 19, 2012, 12:30:27 PM »

It was polished at one time when my old man bought it 30 years ago i think thats why it held up so well will see what it looks like when i get it flipped over and can see the extent if the pits better if it's to bad ill acid wash it and call it good

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HUNTINCOUPLE · « **Reply #9 on:** June 19, 2012, 12:35:45 PM »

Had a guy polish my drift boat. He polished the sturdy weld dump boxes for a livin. Charged 300$ and used a big buffing wheel and compound. That was 10 years ago and still dont look to bad. Havent seen or heard from the guy for a referal?

bloodhound · « **Reply #10 on:** June 19, 2012, 07:41:41 PM »

i can do it also, i have all the stuff and used to polish semi fuel tanks and wheels. i could use the money if you decide you want to pay someone. my charge would be also on how bad it is and how long it will take to sand out the pits. i would require you to buy the sand paper for my sander but i have the polishing wheels, and rouge bars. and how far away you are. if your interested let me know. im in the spanaway area.

75johndeere · « **Reply #11 on:** June 19, 2012, 10:06:16 PM »

With how much money im going to be dumping into a 30 year old boat i doubt i could afford to pay you to do the whole thing, im by no means wealthy. but it might be worth paying you to come out for a day or two and help with the sanding portion if i decided to polish it i still have to get the motor running then pull it then flip it over so i can get a real assessment of how bad it is. if the bottom is as good as the top i plan on doing it but i doubt it is with how old it is and its extensive use in the saltwater. But i might just do the bottom in sharkhide and the top polished i would just have to find a good transition spot to stop one and start the other. the boats is in orting/ south prairie area though

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bloodhound · « **Reply #12 on:** June 19, 2012, 10:44:55 PM »

ohh orting is not too far. 30-40 min. everyone says you have to sand down to 800 but really that over kill, you can stop at 600 with no problems. so dont waist your money on 800, i usually get if im remembering correctly 120 and 600 and that is it. then you have to cut with the yellow rouge wheel with a green rouge bar, then step to a green rouge wheel with a white bar. there are about ten other steps you can do if you want to go buy the book, but thats the fastest. there are very few places that carry the wheels in stock but there is a truck repair place on about 130th or so and canyon in puyallup that carry's a selection. then you have to have a high speed polisher i have a porter cable one which works nice for polishing cars but not the best for aluminum. the dewalt ones work then best. they have instant speed on them and more torque. you have to buy the adapter plates for it and the nut that holds it all together. remember to have the polisher going at max speed and brace yourself well. if you hook something and it kicks up it will hurt. so be careful!!! dont be sparing with the rouge the more the merrier. you really need to have a respirator and a face shield. it flings little strings at you the whole time and youll end up with them on your eyelashes and it will drive you nuts. make sure you have at least a gallon of dawn dish soap and clothes your willing to throw away. the soap is to take in the shower with you to get clean. if you have any questions let me know. if you dont wanna do that way you can sand down to 2000 and hand polish but it will take you 100 times longer. but if your a bow hunter it will get your arms in shape for the season!!

75johndeere · « **Reply #13 on:** June 19, 2012, 11:01:21 PM »

bloodhound pm sent

tony04 · « **Reply #14 on:** June 19, 2012, 11:06:37 PM »

Hey nice boat! Mine is in rough shape because it spent a lot of its life in Alaska as a crummy, hauling loggers and gear up rivers. And also bumping up against barges. But what I did was use the course, medium, and fine grit brillow pads to give it a brushed aluminum look. I think it looks decent. Mine also sat upside down for 12 years. So it was heavily pitted and covered in moss. I hit it with some alumabrite and then with the brillow pads. The picture I posted was just the acid wash.

75johndeere · « **Reply #15 on:** June 19, 2012, 11:25:11 PM »

thanks tony this boat has been taken care of pretty well never abused but has seen its share of nasty water up in neah bay. i was really suprised when i gutted the inside i was expecting to find some cracks in supports and stuff but i looked over the whole thing and couldnt find a singel one. Its funny me and the old man where having a argument the other day about taking the rails off i sayed i wanted to leave them off and he told me he would disown me if i did that to his old baby. did you remove the rails or was the boat made without them? by the way i lost that one there going back on

i searched the net and couldnt find a single pic of a bayrunner without rails

lokidog · « **Reply #16 on:** June 19, 2012, 11:53:07 PM »

Regarding bottom paint, if you don't leave it sit in the salt, I wouldn't worry about it. Mine had no issues until last year when I started leaving it on the mooring buoy for a week or more at a time.

Make sure you have good zincs on it and rinse it when done. A lot easier and cheaper than one or two coats of epoxy paint and then a couple coats of bottom paint. Of course mine is a bit larger and unable to be flipped.

BTW, I had about 9000 miles in the salt on my boat w/o any obvious ill effects. Now, however, I need to botom paint it pretty soon here.

75johndeere · « **Reply #17 on:** June 20, 2012, 08:12:12 AM »

will see loki it has never sat in the saltwater for more than like 4-5 day fishing trips and even then it was pulled most of the time because it was cheaper and easy to just bring it back to camp with us

lokidog · « **Reply #18 on:** June 20, 2012, 08:22:29 AM »

It's a nice little boat, I'd do whatever is necessary to keep it that way. BTW, I'd leave the railson there.

75johndeere · « **Reply #19 on:** June 20, 2012, 08:47:04 AM »

Ya after a saw a photo of one without i think there going to stay. they are removable so i might just take the front one off if I'm bowfishing

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