Side Alum railing oxidation

[chedges]

My 2009 Bennington sider rails just above tunes are oxidizing and have no clue what is best product to clean them hopefully back to new?

 

[WaterDR]

Re: Side Alum railing oxidation

Are you talking about the aluminum rails?

if so, they are merely doing what aluminum is supposed to do. Aluminum oxidizes to aluminum oxide. This is how it protects itself from further corrosion. You can either live with it, or use something acidic to clean it. If it is not too bad, using something as simple as some vinegar or a general cleaner may work and then coat with some wax. You could also try a polish. I would try a cleaner and polish first.

 

[Jlawsen]

Re: Side Alum railing oxidation

AlumaPrep 33 will remove the oxide and any remaining mill slag. Brush it on and wash it off. They sell the same thing as aluminum boat cleaner at West Marine and charge you five times as much. You can get it at most automotive paint stores and major welding supply stores.

The only thing you need to be careful about is other aluminum parts in the vicinity that you don't want cleaned. Cover up what you don't want cleaned with plastic.

Skarkshide will keep it looking good for a long time.

 

[BLC]

Re: Side Alum railing oxidation

I know for sled tunnels I use mothers aluminum and mag pollish. put some on a rag ad rub it till the polish turns black and the take a clean rag with some flour (yes white flour that bread is made of)on it and buff off the blackened pollish. Depending how bad they are oxidized and how shiny you want them you may have to do it a couple times. It will give it a mirror reflection if you want.

 

[5150abf]

Re: Side Alum railing oxidation

Has to be talking about the brackets on the tubes because the rails on the boat are anodized.

Get some toon brite or any other poroduct made for cleaning aluminum, most are wipe on rinse off deals, except for BLCs method which is super labor intensive, polished aluminum is beautiful but it takes a long time to get there and I would think really hard before you try that, if you do one you need to do them all and if you do the brackets you will want to do the tubes and that coukld turn into 80-100 hours of rubbing.

And I agree with WaterDR, it is just oxidation, aluminum is like copper in that it makes its own protective coating only instead of green it is white and is the natural state of the metal so if you want it to keep looking nice you will have to get some Shark Hide on it to keep air and water off of it or it will just go back to what it looks like now.

 

[WaterDR]

Re: Side Alum railing oxidation

Where can you buy sharkhide?

 

[BLC]

Re: Side Alum railing oxidation

Yes like 5150 said the way I explained it is very labor intensive and tedious if there is a faster way to do it it would be better, but it does work. This is a good thread and I will pay attention to the answers becaude I need to do my rails and pontoons to.

 

[5150abf]

Re: Side Alum railing oxidation

I have played around with different stuff at work and I found if you take Toon Brite and dilute it on a wet rag it takes off the stuff but doesn't turn it white like it does full strength, alot of guys swear by the coil cleaner for air conditioners.

iboats of coarse has alot of it, couldn't find Shark Hyde but a quick Google should turn up alot of results, here is what the store has

http://www.iboats.com/Toon-brite/dm...egory.t--session_id.531471794--view_id.272912

http://www.iboats.com/3M/dm/*******...egory.t--session_id.531471794--view_id.272912

http://www.iboats.com/Star-Brite/dm...egory.t--session_id.531471794--view_id.272912

There is more, just poke around.

And BLC, there is a reason I know what a pain it is to polish aluminum, never done a tube but I have polished alot of motorcycle parts and other stuff, few things nicer that polished aluminum.