Best way to clean grp inside and out, and headlining?

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steve yates

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It's grubby in patches outside, and grubby inside, with mound in lockers and hanging lockers.
She's getting springcleaned tomorrow, any suggestions for best methods and products? Preferably stuff I can find in a supermarket or locally, no chandlery in maryport.
Also, does anyone ever use a pressure washer inside? I'm assuming it's a crap idea, but did wonder about doing the forecabin and loo as not much in the way of electronics there. Or is it just too much water sloshing around to get rid of easily?

Thx, steve
 
You can get mould killer sprays from supermarkets, pound shops etc.

Lidl W5 range of cleaning stuff is very good. Cream cleaner, bleach and the all surface cleaner would all be worth buying. If you can find some magic sponges/erasers they'll do well on the grubby vinyl.

Pressure washer inside, you're right, crap idea. Outside, OK if used sensibly. Mould, green and dirt come off the outside nicely after a does of Lidl thick bleach.
 
Cillit Bang and a scrubbing brush generally does it for me. Acetone for some types of very stubborn stains, but that's more misplaced adhesives and the like than domestic gunge.

Pete
 
Try household bleach for the inside of the boat. On a rag neat. A spray can be pretty hard on the lungs unless you use a good mask. Any stubborn marks then can be attacked with acetone or if that fails oxalic acid. for the outside of grp I would start with oxalic acid. Just be careful with bleach. I ruined a good pair of black jeans by kneeling on a wet floor in bathroom with bleach on it. Took the dye out of the black in patches. olewill
 
Anything from the store is overpriced by 20x and not optimized for boats. Bleach is nasty to work with in tight spaces, does not penetrate well, and does not KEEP mildew away. But there are simple inorganic formulations that will for pennies per gallon. The basics are an alkaline pH, surfactant properties, and borate. Borate (borax) is a very effective mildewcide and yet is quite safe to work with. This was formulated for boaters.

Borax Mildew Treatment

1 quart hot water
2 tablespoons baking soda
2 tablespoons Borax
1 tablespoon TSP

A few tips
* Give the cleaner some time to work. This is true of most cleaners. Wipe on, wait 10-20 minutes, scrub off.
* Borax is color-safe, but it does have some latent bleaching ability. It will continue to get better over a few hours-days.
* Do NOT over concentrate. More is NOT better.
* Final rinse should be the SAME PRODUCT. this it what provides the latent mildew protection and is why it is relatively dilute.

More details in the links below.

https://www.practical-sailor.com/blog/Homemade-Mildew-Preventers-11249-1.html
http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/search?q=mildew
 
And after all the cleaning, paint the inside of lockers and other areas of bare fibreglass with danboline bilge paint, it's great stuff and will leave you surfaces that are glossy and easy to wipe.

Kieran
 
If the headlining and inside still look a little grubby after cleaning I have found that melamime paint is an excellent product for renewing the finish and making it look like new. It has even worked on headlings that are just stretched into place and move a bit. I cant recommend it enough.

This is the stuff http://www.wickes.co.uk/Ronseal-One...gclid=CPC234a6iNQCFcsK0wodj3AF3w&gclsrc=aw.ds but I bought mine from another well known store.
 
Oleonix from Cromwell tools (if you have an account or have access to someone that does) is excellent for vinyl and headlinings etc.

Non-nasty and very effective, at very reasonable cost.
Many of the cleaners for vinyl can be quite aggressive and end up destroying the surface finish.
E.g. magic sponges, and even 101 aerospace protectant. May be OK for very light and quick application but too aggressive IMO
 
My cure-all for cleaning, inside, outside, cooking utensils, GRP, etc., is "Chante Clair" that is sold as a kitchen degreaser from the supermarket; either spray directly or onto one of those green scouring pads. We pay €4.10 for a double-pack of 2 x 625ml. I think that it is well worth it.
 
IMG_0959.JPG
This is the stuff I used. We had a bad case of mildew in the heads. I cleaned it off with this last summer. It hasn't returned yet. I've cleaned it infrequently using the same stuff.
 
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