Clearing wax off the boat's canvas :-)

[Sianna]

Does anyone have any tips for cleaning wax from my boat canvas.

Rather stupidly I polished and waxed my boat's hull with he canopies still on , result- thousands of little white wax spots (fling from the polisher) on the lower edge of the our navy blue canvas. I have tried hot water hand washing, then with a power washer but the persistent little blighters won't budge.

No point in recolouring as it won't colour the wax I may resort to an iron and brown paper unless someone has a great solution.

Lesson learnt though.

 

[penfold]

Unless you've got access to a steam cleaner I'd suggest experimenting on an inconspicuous bit with increasingly aggressive solvents; start with turps/meths/IPA and work upwards to acetone, xylene etc. eventually you'll find one that dissolves the wax, hopefully before it attacks the dye and/or the cloth!

 

[benjenbav]

There are quite a few products for cleaning car soft-tops. Maybe one of those might be helpful without being destructive?

 

[DavidJ]

Following on from the @penfold suggestion, for steam you could try one of those steam wallpaper strippers. Amazon £22
Naturally I haven’t tried it.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Earlex-Wal...s_1938806031_sccl_1/262-8875181-9057761?psc=1

 

[Sianna]

Thanks for the replies, last night I tried a steam cleaner with vigorous scrubbing, looked great until it cooled and the little blighters remained there. Renovo cleaner next ..........

 

[DavidJ]

Maybe have a look at the specification make up of the wax. There may be a solvent listed that you recognise and can obtain.

 

[Sianna]

Well after scrubbing, hot washing, steam cleaning ....I gave up just let a year of sun and rain do their stuff,.

So I proceeded to weatherproof the canvas with Fabsil, amazed to find about 70%of the wax spots disappeared after it's dried, maybe as DavidJ suggested, it's acted as as solvent for the wax, maybe a useful tip for someone else