Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

rather than pay 1000 bucks i bought a orbital buffer at harbor frieght,now what is the best stuff to use to polish them out.yes i realize it will take 8 hours.im retired railroad so nuttin but time.lol.thanks in advance

I use a dual action buffer that is less dangerous than my high speed buffer. It is also much less hard work. I use a wool bonnet and White Diamond metal polish.

With a high speed buffer, the absolutely best finish comes with a rouge and the edge of a cotton buffing pad. I suggest you go on YouTube.com and enter truck fuel tank polish to see how the heavy truck retailers fellowship a mirror image.

Of course they start to tarnish in a month or two.

I use Mother's Aluminum Cleaner

recommend a buffer? brand, amazon link? I heard Mother's chrome and mag is good stuff. Does headlights too.

http://www.sharkhide.com/apinfo.html
I used the Sharkhide polish and protectant on 3 pontoon boats. The polish cuts real good and the protectant keeps them shiney for years. Easy to fix little ouches from the docks, too. Buy lots of lacquer thinner! Takes about a 2 gallons to clean the polishing residue off 3 pontoons. I used a cheapo Harbor Freight polisher and my Ryobi DA. The combination works good! Chip any welding slag off the pontoons first and wet sand or 0000 steel wool any other debris off.

I followed instructions on Sharkhyde can. Came out looking nothing like the one in the pic...

I hand polished it on.

After trying several methods of buffing my buddy's toons with a DA polisher, hand polishing, etc and getting mediocre results, I decided to go big! I used what the truckers use on the polished tankers, and their fuel tanks. I bought some AIRWAY buffing pads and rouge.

Using a Makita variable speed buffer I started with a YELLOW airway pad, and tripoli rouge, followed by using a WHITE airway pad and white rouge. Ended up with a mirror polish finish!!!! These buffing pads cut the oxidation like butter..... Instant results...

While it's filthy dirty work, as you buff it leave next to no residue on the toons. I did wipe them down with lacquer thinner when finished and then applied SharkHide.

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Looks good Strake, now put on a N-95 mask at least next time.

Yes..... couldn't believe I did that the first day buffing. The rest of the time I had one on.

This was on my buddy's boat too....... as mine was Sharkhided about 2 years ago, I wanted to get the system down pat before going after mine next season..... LOL !!!

Magnificent job.