Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

This may be a useful tip for somebody. I'm rebuilding my Pontoon and I found out all the stainless steel bolts have very heavy "corrosion", like white powder, and some of them are really stuck. I tried wire brushing two or three then I figured out what I think is a better way. Just dip them in Muriatic Acid for a few minutes, rinsed them, and they came out almost brand new. This saved me a lot of time.

I guess that shows you that all stainless steel is just not the same. There are different qualities of "stainless".

Glad you came through with a solution to your problem. Buying new stainless steel anything is quite expensive. PontoonStuff.com supposedly sells stainless steel products at a very fair price--substantially cheaper than Fastenal.

Bamaman wrote:I guess that shows you that all stainless steel is just not the same. There are different qualities of "stainless".

GregF would tell you different

badmoonrising wrote:GregF would tell you different

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Actually there are many varieties of stainless steel, and ALL of them corrode in certain circumstances. SS needs access to oxygen to maintain its resistance to corrosion, which is why you don't see SS used to bolt on keels on sailboats. Likely the white powder you see is corroded (oxidized) alunimun if the SS part came off a boat or pontoon.

I am not a metallurgist and I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but stainless and aluminum are about the only two dissimilar metals that don't react with each other. I used to be involved with structural aluminum hardware and all the bolts had to be stainless to prevent unwanted corrosion.
I wonder if the grade of the ss on those bolts was inferior, thus causing corrosion?

Do the magnet test


What say you GregF ??

Where is old Greggf???

Ran off......

playcat wrote:Actually there are many varieties of stainless steel, and ALL of them corrode in certain circumstances. SS needs access to oxygen to maintain its resistance to corrosion, which is why you don't see SS used to bolt on keels on sailboats. Likely the white powder you see is corroded (oxidized) alunimun if the SS part came off a boat or pontoon.

U are correct,the white powder it is oxidized aluminium,just want to say the acid cleans the bolts.

curtiscapk wrote:Ran off......

bassn386 wrote:I am not a metallurgist and I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but stainless and aluminum are about the only two dissimilar metals that don't react with each other. I used to be involved with structural aluminum hardware and all the bolts had to be stainless to prevent unwanted corrosion.
I wonder if the grade of the ss on those bolts was inferior, thus causing corrosion?

Yeppers! When I first invented the EzFenders and had them on the market, I was using Iron Oxide thumbscrews. Found out after just a few weeks on my Manitou that it was a bad idea (Hey, I'm a Rescue, Fire and Hazmat tech, not a rocket scientist (or speller) (for that matter!) So I went S/S and no problems at all. Hmm, I just got off work at 0500, what are we talkin about, anyway? Crap!

Oh, ya! GregF running off with some topless chick that BMR photographed sitting on a chunk of Stainless, that stained. She shoulda been wearing aluminum foil on her butt. Wait.............That was a dream! I think? ...... I better head for bed!

<GregF> Obviously, you have cheap chicom (that's chi as in "chinese" and com as in "communist") pseudo-stainless steel. The magnet test will show you right away that this is not good old US made 316 stainless. The flakes you're seeing are the result of galvanic deposition of aluminum tetraflourobisalycilate propagated by the infusion of dilute bass piss into your threads. </GregF>



How'd I do?

BobG wrote: The flakes you're seeing are the result of galvanic deposition of aluminum tetraflourobisalycilate propagated by the infusion of dilute bass piss into your threads. How'd I do?

Verbal diarhea! Ya done good--er is that ya done well?