What are you guys doing to clean your boats? I have an older center console and would like to give a a good deep clean, something better than a power washer can do. Anything I can use to bring back some of the shine and restore the original color? I was thinking some kind of cleaner and some kind of scrubbing wheel attached to my grinder? Any better ideas out there? TIA
Depends how bad the gel coat is. Wash and scrub it a couple times with starbrite hull cleaner or something similar. Then you could try a polishing compound followed by waxing once happy with it. If it's real faded, clouded you may have to wet sand, and that is a ton of work.
You talking inside or out? If inside, what kind of non slip floor is on the boat?
Its the inside. It doesn't have a special floor. It's all the same finish.Originally Posted by barbarian
You may be better asking same question on thehulltruth.com lots of center console and saltwater boat owners there.
Mary Kate On-Off then wax the smooth area with a paste wax like collinite fleetwax and use Woody Wax on the non-skid.
https://woody-wax.com/fiberglass-non-skid-deck-wax.php
If it’s bad enough, you will have to compound or wet sand as mentioned and I’d rather pay someone to do that.
Or if it’s something like an older Carolina skiff with a splatter coat interior, woody wax the whole thing. But that splatter coat is designed to not be shiny.
What kind of boat?
Ranger 2300 bay
I had a feeling my question would be interpreted that way. My bad. They all put something in the factory finish to aid not slipping. Diamond patterns, sandpaper like finish, some have a semi-smooth raised bumps. These finishes do make it harder to slip, but also make it harder to clean. I tried a lot of stuff over the years and everything that worked seemed to make it harder to keep clean in the future - like it was too harsh and probably thinned or removed some protective coating.
Gotcha. What I said earlier is the best method, on-off to clean any stains then paste wax the smoother portions and woody-wax the diamond pattern non skid. If you follow the directions I linked it works really well. If you have to compound or wet sand, that's a real pia but may be necessary if oxidation is bad enough.
That's where woody wax really shines. When you do it right you can actually feel it stiffen up as you dry it, and it provides great grip while still letting water/blood/slime/etc just wash right off.
Thank you all for the suggestions. I will give it a go!
I misunderstood original post, thought he was talking about hull and cap issues with oxidation. Your post is spot on sir!
You could also try a magic eraser on the diamond part.
Starbrite deck cleaner with a brush works well.
This is what I use on the entire interior of my center console.
That's what I've been doing with mine as well.
He/him
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