Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I just finished mirror polishing my pontoons! Wow, what hard work it was! Started befor Halloween and finished December 7th- about 55 hours of sanding , grinding and buffing. I found out that my aluminum came from the mill with a acid etched satin finish, it was way harder to do than plain bare finish aluminum. After removing the sharkhide with paint striper, I powerwashed the toons . I had some bad scratches in my toons from outside bunks on the trailer-a big no no on pontoon boats[put the guide ons inside] Started with 220 then 400 ,6oo,finally 1000 grit just on the areas with the scratches. Then used a yellow 1 on 1 fast cut airway 8'' wheel buffer on a H D millwaukee buffer/grinder over the whole toon to remove the satin etched finish and imperfections.I used the brown tripolie rouge bar with that wheel] Next I went back over the suface with a green Airway wheel with green rouge bar. A white airway wheel with white rouge bar was next,and finally a flannel wheel with Red Max Bar was used for final wheel passes. I was not satisfied at this point with the finishas i could still see wheel marks that seemed imposible to remove. I ordered a cyclonic orbital buffer and nuvite c and s polish. Useing this as detailed on Perfectpolish website, like I was doing an airstream trailer or airplane, the results were great! I am very happy with the look after going over the toons with nuvite c first, then back over them with nuvite s useing the orbital. I am not useing sharkhide as I want to work the suface some more with the nuvite for maintenance later this coming season. It looks SO much nicer than the factory look. I learned alot, like how soft aluminum really is! and nasty to work with. will try to post pics when we get the JC out of storage in spring!

got before an after pics would be sweet

I went after my new Bennington's tarnishing toons with a Porter Cable Dual Action (D/A) polisher, a wool bonnet and Black Diamond metal polish.

I got as good of a shine as I'm willing to keep up. I was afraid that if I went to using rouge that it'd get too polished to easily maintain from time to time.

My only problem is with the black oxide that the polishing produced. Even after using lacquer cleaner, it's just difficult to remove from nooks and crannies. If you try to use Sharkhide, it smudges the black oxide out of the cracks, etc.

But my boat still looks so much nicer than when it was new (6 months ago.)

just finished the trytoon after being in the water without shark hide for 10 months (are first year with a slip) what a mess. had moss 3/8ths thick a dam floating reef. jacked half the boat up at a time about 4 feet on the trailer and went at it. had to use 80 grit on the orbital sander to get the lime scale off and then 120 to smooth the scratches out and finished up with a good heavy cotton buffing pad on a 8 inch 2 speed buffer and the heaveyest cutting buffing compound I could find, finished it looks great I will call it a cloudy mirror finish. I to had problems getting all the residue off, used lacquer thinner and then soap and water and still hit bad spots that streaked when the shark hide hit it.
I hope the shark hide works, I don't think it will keep the moss from growing on the logs but it should keep it from getting to the aluminum and attaching itself on so I can just power wash it off at the end of the year.

I can understand what you are saying moregooder. Mine was in a slip for only four months and it took a lot of work just to get the algae off. I am picking up a new toon next month and have decide to get a Hydro Hoist lift to put in the slip and shark hide the toon before it ever goes in the water. I am too damn old to have to go through that every three months. I like to keep my equipment looking nice!