Any "miracle" products for maintaining your boat?

[Ana]

Walk into any boat supply store and the cleaning products isle has more variety than the cereal isle in a supermarket. Most of those products produce reasonable results but some are ridiculous expensive for no reason.

A couple of examples I've experienced:

• In order to keep chrome railings like new, "Bar Keepers Friend" for a couple of $'s does great job.
• Every so often a bit of Lysol toilet cleaner takes care of the darker shade created at the water line in the hull.

On both cases I could get a $20-30 bottle of a boat product to get the similar results.

I'm still looking for the perfect product for the aluminum window frames, after more than a decade they don't look as sharp as they used to, even after cleaning.

 

[Wookie]

Walk into any boat supply store and the cleaning products isle has more variety than the cereal isle in a supermarket. Most of those products produce reasonable results but some are ridiculous expensive for no reason.

A couple of examples I've experienced:

• In order to keep chrome railings like new, "Bar Keepers Friend" for a couple of $'s does great job.
• Every so often a bit of Lysol toilet cleaner takes care of the darker shade created at the water line in the hull.

On both cases I could get a $20-30 bottle of a boat product to get the similar results.

I'm still looking for the perfect product for the aluminum window frames, after more than a decade they don't look as sharp as they used to, even after cleaning.

600 grit sandpaper and lots of elbow grease.

 

[Ana]

600 grit sandpaper and lots of elbow grease.

Nooooooo Where's the DON'T LIKE option?

I wanted easy solutions, my elbows don't have as much grease as they used to.

 

[Wookie]

Nooooooo Where's the DON'T LIKE option?

I wanted easy solutions, my elbows don't have as much grease as they used to.

Easier than replacing them. Sounds like you're about 5 years too late to keep them waxed, kinda like my F-250.

 

[Wookie]

Other options include Ospho to etch the aluminum, then a coat of self etching primer (sprayed) and then a coat of high gloss white epoxy enamel. That would assume that you want to paint them every 3-5 years. Which, if you didn't wax them, isn't too likely.

 

[Ana]

yeah... the painting option is a no go. The cabin had a total of 4 frames; 2 for the front windows that open out and 2 on the sides that slide. Will do the sandpaper. I knew that was an option, was hoping for something easier.
I thought by now I'd have grandkids that I can put to work on these types of chores.

 

[michael-fisch]

Easier than the sandpaper is using STAINLESS STEEL steel wool. Don't even think of using normal steel wool on anything that will ever end up on your boat. It's worse than spilling a bit of rebreather sorb on a welded aluminum deck.

Michael

 

[Vicko]

What happens if you spill absorbent onto welded aluminum?

 

[Griffo]

What happens if you spill absorbent onto welded aluminum?

One of the chemicals in soda lime is sodium hydroxide which is what they use to melt the aluminium out of crushed bauxite. So I imagine it doesn't do it much good.

 

[Wookie]

What happens if you spill absorbent onto welded aluminum?

For me it didn't attack the welds, it attacked the places where pits (over 30 years) had started to form. The caustic gets in the pits and never neutralizes like acid will. We fixed thousands of pits and hundreds of holes.