Stainless steel cleaning

[Opie91]

Originally Posted by Suijin

I bought a bottle of Spotless Stainless today to try out. Applied it to some stanchions with some moderate surface rust, at the prescribed temperature, let it sit for 30 minutes, kept it moist, and...nothing. Did not do a thing.

So I took another stanchion and cleaned it with acetone, then mineral spirits on the theory that residual wax may have prevented the SS from working. I also shook the bottle, which I had not noticed in the instructions. Applied again, as per the first, and...nothing.

I'm perplexed. I would have expected it to do something, not nothing. I did notice that the areas without rust where it was applied were a little a little brighter, but it did nothing to the rust.

I can't square that with the rave reviews I've read. Very strange.

Take it you are in MD. They recommend doing it above 70F. You are going to have to leave it on quite a bit longer in these cooler temperatures.

It does make a difference. Worked well on our stainless and it was neglected for years before we bought the boat.

[Painted Skies]

Originally Posted by Suijin

I bought a bottle of Spotless Stainless today to try out. Applied it to some stanchions with some moderate surface rust, at the prescribed temperature, let it sit for 30 minutes, kept it moist, and...nothing. Did not do a thing.

So I took another stanchion and cleaned it with acetone, then mineral spirits on the theory that residual wax may have prevented the SS from working. I also shook the bottle, which I had not noticed in the instructions. Applied again, as per the first, and...nothing.

I'm perplexed. I would have expected it to do something, not nothing. I did notice that the areas without rust where it was applied were a little a little brighter, but it did nothing to the rust.

I can't square that with the rave reviews I've read. Very strange.

For tough rust, we applied 'Spotless Stainless' with a stiff bristle brush or toothbrush and did a little scrubbing to make sure there was good contact/coverage; even sometimes reapplied a fresh coat to the worst areas. Then left it on overnight to do its thing before hosing it off. Typically, we used it when the temps outside are between 75 and 95F.

[Pete7]

Someone recommended baking soda and white vinegar to me. So thought I would give it a try on an old stainless steel a frame that had been sat in a boat yard workshop for some years collecting dust grime paint and grease on top of the surface rust stains.

Put the baking soda in a plastic lunch box and poured on the white vinegar. Whosh great reaction just like those school chemistry experiments. Wearing marigolds I dipped a pan scourer in and pasted it on. the fizzing stopped when the mix dried out so just added more vinegar and the reaction started off again. After an hour I went over it again with the same mix but scrubbing vigorously. Finally washed it down with a hose.

For two innocuous kitchen products I was pleasantly surprised by the results lifting all the surface rust, paint and grime off and very cheap to buy.

Pete

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by Opie91

Take it you are in MD. They recommend doing it above 70F. You are going to have to leave it on quite a bit longer in these cooler temperatures.

It does make a difference. Worked well on our stainless and it was neglected for years before we bought the boat.

I'm actually in North Carolina right now and I recall it was a warmish day but I'm not sure. I'll give it another shot when it warms up further.

I really want it to work. I have all my stanchions off and they have some surface rust in places at the base that would be impossible to rub. Took one and dipped the base in an acid solution that the metal fabricator at this yard recommended. Came out perfect, so that's my back up plan. But there are other bits of stainless that would be a pain to dip, so I hope SS ultimately delivers.

[CaptTom]

Since we're dredging up this old thread (which was very helpful at the time) let me add what I've learned since then.

My old standby, Never-Dull, still works on lightly stained SS, but requires a lot more work. Spotless Stainless, which I bought after reading this, works well.

A mechanic at a boatyard saw me using it and clued me in to an even better one: "The Works" toilet bowl cleaner. In literally a side-by-side test, it put Spotless Stainless to shame. My all-afternoon task was done in minutes, and I was left to wander the yard, meeting and enjoying a cold drink with another couple working on their boat.

I only wish it came in a gel, so you could let it sit on the stainless longer.

[transmitterdan]

"The Works" contains hydrochloric acid which will damage a lot of things boats are made of like fiberglass gelcoat. It also contains bleach.

[Safari38LH]

My boat is getting a new deck put on so all of the hardware has been taken off. I looked into polishing and decided to machine polish the stainless. For $100 I bought a bench polisher and assorted wheels and compounds. The boat was built in 1982 so there is a lot of rust and scratches. WOW - this thing really works. The stanchions look brand new and I have been able to remove all but the worst scratches. If you have the hardware off the boat for any reason, think about getting one of these.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

"The Works" contains hydrochloric acid which will damage a lot of things boats are made of like fiberglass gelcoat. It also contains bleach.

Ahhh. That explains why the guy at the yard told me to make sure I didn't get it on anything else, and wash it off well. I thought I recognized the smell.

Anyway, it does work great. For normal rust stains, wet a rag with it and just wipe. Or wrap the rag around the really bad spots and let it soak a bit.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Safari38LH

My boat is getting a new deck put on so all of the hardware has been taken off. I looked into polishing and decided to machine polish the stainless. For $100 I bought a bench polisher and assorted wheels and compounds. The boat was built in 1982 so there is a lot of rust and scratches. WOW - this thing really works. The stanchions look brand new and I have been able to remove all but the worst scratches. If you have the hardware off the boat for any reason, think about getting one of these.

You can even use an adapter with a 4" cotton polishing disk just like the bench grinder uses which you can mount on an electric drill. In case you want to bring the machine to the piece of hardware. It does splatter of-course.

Another option, when you take the stainless piece off, is to bring it to an electro-polisher

[FutureStories]

Ignore anyone who tells you acid is bad! They're government Kent spy's trying to keep you down

[SVNeko]

Originally Posted by Suijin

I'm actually in North Carolina right now and I recall it was a warmish day but I'm not sure. I'll give it another shot when it warms up further.

I really want it to work. I have all my stanchions off and they have some surface rust in places at the base that would be impossible to rub. Took one and dipped the base in an acid solution that the metal fabricator at this yard recommended. Came out perfect, so that's my back up plan. But there are other bits of stainless that would be a pain to dip, so I hope SS ultimately delivers.

Spotless worked for us. But if you use it or any other acid, be sure to protect the metal after. We had rust come back faster and worse than before when we got it clean with spotless stainless. Now we go over it with some collinite wax or use T9 in the tight spots. SS is good for things that are hard to get with wax, like pelican hooks and rigging, but do follow up with some protectant.

[phantomracer]

Been doing the polish the stainless dance for a while... polish the stainless in the spring.. wait a month or so.. spots show up.. half way through the season it gets to me and i spend the time and redo all the stainless.. then do it at the end of the season..... repeat next year..

I next tried using spotless stainless to remove the staining, followed by the polish. Again.. looked great.. no real time added. still rust spots showed up soon after launching.

Last spring I got lazy.. I JUST applied spotless stainless to all the stanchions, railing and chrome winches. (NO metal polish) Again.. looked stunning..

applied..waited..washed off.. Thats it. Washed the boat THIIS past weekend ( A year laster), the stainless looks 90% as good as it did last spring! Hardly any staining in a calendar year! I am totally floored.. spent 1000% of the effort in years past and got LESS performance than just using spotless stainless alone.

I am glad I stumbled upon this method. its is a LOT easier, and don't have to spend the cubic hours polishing!!

No doubt there may be other products that work well too BKF, etc, but Spotless Stainless is easy, and it works. One of the few products I have used that stand up to the marketing hoopla!

Yes works better the warmer it is... and if it is too hot and windy, I do apply some plastic cling wrap around the bad spots to keep the product from drying out too fast.. I just use a cup of the product and a chip brush..

But shocked at how good the stainless looks this spring and I haven't touched it!