Cleaning Bottom of Black Boat tips/tricks??

[Dannie B]

Any tips or tricks to clean bottom of black boat? Just has a lot of small streaks from stumps and/or being beached before I got it. Thanks.

[Bob_Fish]

Use a black magic marker. It will hide a lot of the deeper scratches. Otherwise try some wax for a black car. It's a darker color and will also hide scratches.

[JJohnSind]

I used to only get white hulls because, knowing gel coat scratches are white, they would show up less. (This is not necessarily true though, as “dirty” scratches contrast and show up against the white). White (or any shade of gray) was also the easiest to repair (without using a pro). Dark hulls are really great looking on the trailer though so I went that route on my last boat. I don’t worry about surface/light scratches as it would be a never ending task to keep the bottom scratch free. Of course, gouges, you should fix.

[crank68]

I have a lot of customers that come in and want me to do a lot of covering up of their scratches, sand and buff, and do some gel repairing of the bottom. My advice is always the same. If it’s really deep fix it, if not buff it and let it ride. If you try to keep the scratches “hidden” on the bottom via sanding…you’ll wind up runnin out of gel.

[fly by night]

Something else that works wonders on all kinds of scratches is a paint marker with a ball bearing inside from your local parts store. I have various colors that I have been using for years on different applications and they are a more permanent fix.