Sticky Fenders

[AndrewPalmer]

I bought some large orange coloured ball fenders second hand at a jumble, and have fitted them as pontoon fenders to my mooring. Unfortunately they have become very sticky all over the surface, and are leaving a sticky residue on my hull. I'm assuming that it must be something to do with sunlight, but you would imagine that fenders are made out of a material which can withstand UV. Maybe it is because they are very old? Maybe orange fenders are prone to this?

Does anyone have any ideas about what might be causing this, or more importantly how to clean it off and stop it from recurring? I'm hoping not to have to bin them!

 

[veshengro]

Having experienced a similar problem with a couple of 'salvaged' fenders I found trapped under a river bank, I'm guessing that perhaps the material itself starts to chemically breakdown in sunlight and exposure to weather. For what it's worth, I cleaned the fenders with paint thinners then washed in soapy water, rinsed and dried thoroughly, then on someone's advice I polished them with car wax....
The idea I was told was to form a kind of protective surface/shine on the material as with a car body.

So far so good, but my fenders are just protecting a 14 foot GRP clinker dinghy against a Marina Pontoon, so they don't really get a good battering or squashing that a bigger boat might cause, plus I give them an occasional squirt and polish with Mr Halfords finest spray wax.

 

[MikeBz]

It's UV damage. I had the same issue some years ago with a dark blue fender of reputable make (can't remember exactly which). Someone recommended PVCu cleaner - it helped a bit, for a little while, but the stickiness returned quite quickly. It ended up in the corner of the garage. I guess a fender sock would be one solution.

 

[tkalfaoglu]

Usually acetone takes away the stickiness but it can also destroy the fenders too.. How about a cloth bag over them instead?

 

[ashtead]

You could use old T shirts to cover them if acetone doesn’t work or maybe a can of sticky remover from screwfix etc to remove sticky label residue .