Making a grey dingy white again

martinwoolwich

martinwoolwich

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After just one season, my sparkiling white AVON rib is positively grey with additional black streaks and marks. The grey I suspect is from the fuel (very, very smokey engine at low speed) and the black marks probably from mooring up alongside rubber tyres etc.

Have tried cleaning with washing up liquid, CIF, special spray on stuff designed for cleaning ribs (can't remember the name but it's orange/brown in colour) and none of this seems to make much of an impression.

Anybody know of a magic potion that will get this stuff off. Don't mind a bit of elbow grease but scrubbing away for hours on end yielding little result is a bit soul destroying.

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Ask Matt. You could try hlb's patent boat remover, as it shifts everything else, but I seem to recall it made Matt's tender go a bit yellow used neat - normal dilution doesn't seem to shift the grey muck, though. I am also in search of the magic formula, so I'll let you know if I find anything.

<hr width=100% size=1>Si hoc legere scis, nimium eruditionis habes.
 
Re: Magic formula - making white look white

hlb's stuff is a start for the really gunky stuff. I confes i haven't found an utterly magic one-off formula for white RIBs that works as well as haydn's stuff does for grp. Use h's stuff no more concentrated than 10:1.

After that, use the same thing that makes the bathroom sparkly white as opposed to fairly white - viakal, or tesco/sainsbury equivalent to disolve calcium. The hard water in most of southern england means that getting anything really clean ain't easy, and a white plastic boat especially so.

Then, the industrial wipes seem to have some slightly magic formuila that returns quite white to actual new white. But this involves fairly careful careful rubbing, bit by bit, and once the stuff is lifted, another rag for wiping the axshul crap off, tho we are talking wuite picky picky cleaning now. I used the ones in a yellow carton thing, yeah, the ones that sting yer hands, those.

Once the boat is clean clean clean, put summink onnit that either protects the boat overall, like a cover, but also protects from crappy atmosphere. I think i wd try barrier cream, fine on hands so bound to be fine on a boat. Slop it on rub around and fine film ensures no more ingrained muck. Well, it's that or summink like that, not sure. Not tried this, ahem.

Acetone wd be a fairly bad idea, imho. I think i will have a go i think with very diluted acid, perhaps oxalic to start, or maybe HCl. Possibly. This is v definitely summink to try a small area first, preferably on someone else's boat, ahem.

instead of cleaning, of course, the trick is to use bright lights. Yeah really really bright lights, like they have in florida or the med. Or of course, at a blimmin boat show. Then, your boat will always look nice and clean, even when it isn't. In fact, the only time to see if a boat is clean in the med is during the very brief twilight, when all sorts of patches of greyishness are visible, but disappear in 5 minutes as darkness falls, and can't be distinguished in the brightness of daytime. I beleive it is for this sort of reason that humans in countries near the equator favour obvious bright colours - you can't see the difference between hints of tints - they all look the same. Med and carib boat skipper believe they are shit hot at boat cleaning, much better than in uk, but in fact - they just have nice bright sunshine.

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err, oops. Enough acetone and you end up with no boat at all, just the reinforcing mesh from inside the tubes. I think yer boat is basically, errm, buggered.

<hr width=100% size=1>Si hoc legere scis, nimium eruditionis habes.
 
You're right, Cif et all are useless for this. There is some strong stuff just called inflatable boat cleaner, sold in plain white bottles in industrial style French chandleries. It is amazingly good at removing exhaust soot off tenders. Thing is, I have no idea where to buy it except Frecnh chandleries.....

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nah its ok, you just stick to it, good in rough weather,
acetone was bad idea tho, smells nice, hmmmmm

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5 parts white paint to 1 of black makes a white dingy grey.
50/50 white and black makes a simple dingy grey.
7 parts white paint to 1 of black makes a grey dingy white.

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Re: Magic formula - making white look white

Now I know why my boat always looks dirtier in winter than in summer.....

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3M Citrus cleaner with a Scotchbrite non abrasive pad scrub the boat all over at the same time using a j cloth to lift the dirt off the tubes that the citrus cleaner has moved.

Then get the Vinyl restorer and cnditioner and rub that in all over to protect it from other soot and UV rays.

You can get the whole lot and more in a special carry case to keep on the boat rather than eep it in a bucket. More suited to your boat really.

<hr width=100% size=1>Dom
watch this space
 
This stuff does actually work. Not like magic mind! It needs elbow grease and time but if you follow the instructions it both cleans and gives a smooth finish after.

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