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.

 

[TSailors]

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 .

 

[AndrewPalmer]

Thanks everyone. I have yet to tackle them, but I did clean the hull, and found that methylated spirits got it off a lot more effectively than white spirit.

Yesterday at a boat jumble I spoke to a guy who was selling cleaned up second hand fenders. He thought that the problem would have been caused by then having been cleaned with a solvent in the past and speculated maybe petrol.

I'm still mulling over what to do, but will probably remove them initially and bring them home to clean and test again in the sun!

 

[ashtead]

Try floor wipes -with the demise of Wilkinson I think home store might stock a variety of products -our ball fender which is on stern cleaned up well with these though.

 

[srm]

I have also had fenders become sticky, both orange and white, and to the best of my knowledge they had not been subject to solvents. They were in the order of 30+ years old so I assumed it was an "end of life" symptom and put them in the skip.

 

[LiftyK]

I have recently been introduced to Pink. You get it in tubs in supermarkets. It’s a slightly abrasive cleaner that comes at a low price. It made our fenders look like new after a short session using the stuff. I’m sure it will also remove stickiness.

 

[ashtead]

Also in tins for cleaning stainless steel if you have time to kill it’s effective.