Stained aluminum

[Slabhunter]

I bought a 2011 175 TF with a pretty bad water line where I suppose it spent a lot of time sitting in the water. I found some brighter that really does a good job cleaning the dark water line but it seems like a couple of trips to the lake the bottom looks like I never cleaned it. My question is what can I use to “protect” the aluminum?

[ct0218]

I have a 2016 28 ft Bennington pontoon and a 2001 PT 185 Tracker and both hulls were treated with Shark Hide 6 and 5 years ago. They are both getting close to needing another thorough cleaning and a coat of Shark Hide. The mountain lakes I fish in are fairly clear with 5-10 foot visibility, not mucky. I have fished in and around Raleigh and some of the lakes there, especially way up creeks, are mucky and will tarnish the boat in a day or so if it is not protected. After a trip there several years ago, and after the Shark Hide treatment, the hull didn't tarnish. Expensive product, but well worth it in my opinion. There is an old Youtube video of an application process for Shark Hide that was fairly accurate. I simply cleaned and sealed the aluminum and skipped the polishing step. The tritoon and Tracker hulls were just more than I wanted to polish. Also, there is another product available called Alumetron but I have not used it.

[paul40269]

You can use a heavy duty aluminum cleaner and then wax the boat. But let me warn you, it's a labor intensive process. I did it once and won't do it again. If you join one of the Tracker forums on Facebook (190 owners or 175 owners) you can do a search and guys have posted about products they use. What I learned is that if you don't wipe boat down religiously after each use, the scum line will win. We have dirty lakes here in NJ.

[rtlgator]

Shark Hide like ct said, polish with Diamond polish ( vey messy and need lots of rags ) then protect with Shark Hide. Mine still shines after 3 years and have enough left over to do it again.