My replacement Boat.

[snccoulter]

I picked up my boat Sat. It is dirtier than I thought it was going to be. It has sat under a few trees for the last 18 months or so. I paid a friends daughter to get all the leaves out. there had to have been 50 lbs of wet nasty rotten leaves. The best 10 bucks I have spent in a long time. Here she is in all of her dirty glory. I have been scrubbing all morning and I have her about half clean on the outside. The interior is good a clean a bit musty but good and clean. all I will need to do is hit it with a light cleaner and then let the kids have fun wiping it down.

[StuM]

Did a "T" fall off the name?

[snccoulter]

Originally Posted by StuM

Did a "T" fall off the name?

My wife has already said it is getting renamed it just implies there should be a "T" there.

I am done with the scrubbing of the moss and crap as of now. I am sure some will come back prior to putting her back in the water but I could not look at her so dirty. I pulled all the cushions and have washed the them. Now to sort through all the junk that was in the cabin. It was use to store everything he had ever used on the boat it seems.

The only thing I am not real happy about is the staining in the deck area. The leaves sat there for a long time so there is some ugly brown stains that I will have to figure out how to remove. Other than that it was a productive day.

[P26OD228]

Congratulations on your new to you boat!

[captain465]

I would recommend a Mary-Kate product call "Boat Detail". Comes in a quart sized plastic bottle. It has a slight amount of grit in it and if you scrub the areas of the non skid decks, and leave it to dry in the sun, it will come back to it's original color. I have used it on my 1985 Irwin decks, and a recent surveyor could not believe that the decks were original, not refinished.

[dwedeking2]

You might also try Soft Scrub. I used it to remove stains. It did a really good job.

[Sailuke]

Use a fiberglass cleaner called 'FSR' or 'Fiberglass Stain Remover' the stuff is magic. i used it on four 420s that had been sitting outside for over a year along with sitting in salt water for a whole season. god those hulls were nasty yellow and mossy. i squirted it on and bam the hulls were literally the color of a piece of printer paper.

[Be Free]

I've had good results using a fairly strong bleach solution. Spray it on and let it sit for a while. Don't be in a hurry. Scrub, rinse, and repeat if needed. I've seldom needed more than two applications to remove tannin from leaf stains. It's cheap, easy, and effective.

[Suijin]

I would start with a generic boat cleaner like Mary Kate, diluted according to instructions, and a healthy dose of bleach added in. Both are cheap and as Be Free mentioned bleach works wonders on gelcoat.

I would save the expensive stuff like FSR for areas that are more stubborn.

When you're done cleaning, POLISH AND WAX. It's important to protect the gelcoat from absorbing water, which it will do if it's in moderately poor condition. If it absorbs water and it freezes, it will crack and then you'll have a much bigger problem on your hands in terms of water absorbtion.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Be Free

I've had good results using a fairly strong bleach solution. Spray it on and let it sit for a while. Don't be in a hurry. Scrub, rinse, and repeat if needed. I've seldom needed more than two applications to remove tannin from leaf stains. It's cheap, easy, and effective.

... something I use here when the bleach does not work is Ferronet.. its an acid based product for removing rust weeps from SS/Galv to the GRP.. check your local hardware store.
Also.. remember to re-protect the treated areas with wax or something appropriate..
Looking good..

[AfterHoursNLCT]

Tilex w/bleach works well also......

[Be Free]

I suggested the bleach because he was dealing with an organic stain. +1 on the acid based cleaner for rust.

[snccoulter]

I tried a fiberglass cleaner on one side and bleach on the other and let it sit. the bleached did a reasonably decent job the fiberglass cleaner was a joke. So i stopped at Lowes and bought a couple of gallons of exterior bleach and started to fill the area with water. I then started to poor the bleach all over(fond out it was a gel based it stuck to everything)If i would have known that I would have just pored it on all of the stains. on every stain the bleach was pored on it came clean in just a few moments anywhere else the stains got noticeably better. I will pick up another bottle or 2 and hit everything with a spray bottle and the bleach. at 3.50 a gallon it is not going to break the bank .

[Rhapsody-NS27]

Nice work on the cleaning.


Lots of boats that look like the before pictures above, but only need a good bit of TLC to be looking nice again.

[snccoulter]

Now I just need it to be spring so I can get her in the bay and start playing with her. Once I have her off the trailer I will wire wheel the trailer and put a good rust inhibiting paint on it. I am so looking forward to all the projects.