Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I've read many toon cleaning & sealing discussions and i think i have more questions than ever.
My boat stays in the lake all season & the toons have never been polished.
Is it beyond hope after so many years?

If i tackle this should i begin with a pressure washer?
Which Scotch Brite pad? Or a sequence of pads...?
Or is acid wash the most effective first step?

Pressure wash if there is growth for sure, the you would be amazed at what the acid wash does, you might have to use it at 75:25 acid/water but it should bring them back to a whitish color. you could then shark hide them, or polish some then shark hide. The shark hide will prevent discoloration going forward.

I acid wash my toons every Fall using a mag wheel cleaner sold by a local hardware store. They carry this product exclusively to clean pontoons. It is bottled locally and not available anywhere else or I would tell you what it is.

My boat sits in the water from March to October so I use the green 3" x 6" Scotch Bright pads on it every month or so to keep the algae at bay. I got a pack of six pads from Lowes a couple of years ago and am still on the second one. I do it while we're beached and I'm bored. Takes about 20 minutes to do inside and outside of both toons.

Alumabrite from NAPA or anything comparable all of these cleaners are nothing more than Hydrofluoric Acid, with some proprietary ingredients.

Definitely start with an acid wash. I use the gray Scotchbrite pads during the summer as the boat stays in the water. Takes 10 minutes every few weeks to get the scum off and shine up the rest of the toon above the waterline. I have found the green pads to be highly abrasive and wonder about the long term impacts of using them. I found the gray pads on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/20Pk-Scotch-Brit ... brite+gray

I tried 3 of the 3M Scotch Brite Hand Scrubbers that some of the marine part stores sell and the medium was the best for me. The coarse scratched the toon and the fine really did not do anything on the rough stuff. Since my toon is in the water May - November, I do a light scrub every week and pull it out about once a month to do a better job.

medium PN 01009 - red pad
coarse PN 01008 - black pad
fine PN 01010 - White pad

I used those 3M hand scrubbers to each time we anchored off the beach. Worked pretty good but eventually I opted to bottom paint my toons. No more worries.

Looks like 3M gives a new color and new part number to every variation of scrubby they make. Thanks 3M!