best cleaner

[Robert W. Long]

Hi to All: I have a lapstrake ply boat painted with interlux and want to know what is the best product to clean the dirt, scuff and rub marks etc off the inside and outside without harming the paint. I've tried windex cause thats what I have. It works but takes a lot of elbow grease. Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks, Robert in Mendocino, Ca.:)

[Thorne]

I use a soft dish-grade scrubbie / sponge with dish detergent for both paint and varnish. That takes the dirt and some marks off, but otherwise it is sand and repaint/varnish if the marks are deep.

[Todd Bradshaw]

I don't know whether or not you want wax in it, but we've used 3M "One Step" cleaner/wax on a number of boats painted with Interlux Brightside and it does wonders for them. It's a thick, liquid wax with a little bit of polishing compound in it and is great for bringing back a nice look and shine to dull, oxidized, or mildly scuffed paint. I've had a couple boats where I was pretty sure repainting was the only way I would ever get them looking good again and this stuff did a very repectable job of cleaning them up.

[Concordia...41]

Do not use a scrubbie of any flavor! Even the ones that say they don't scratch, will leave small scratches in the paint. Same for cleansers like BonAmi whose trademark is "hasn't scratched yet." :rolleyes:

You'd have to look at it just right in the right light or with a magnifying glass, but they do scratch. And then what gets into all those little scratches you can't see????

MORE DIRT!

Seriously.

YMMV and there are times when something like SoftScrub is called for (like on a cockpit or head floor), but abrasive cleansers like that should be reserved for rare and desperate occasions.

If you think about things you don't want scratched - your paint is probably near the top of the list, maybe right after your portlights ;)

In my bag of tricks, I generally carry acetone and lacquer thinner. I'm a trained professional though. All solvents should be used in moderation and no solvent should ever be just slopped around. However, if the skid marks on your paint are rubber from rubbing into a dock or something:

1. Test in an inconspicuous area

2. Have two rags - one for the solvent and one fairly damp with fresh water

3. Put a little dab of solvent on a clean rag and with the wet rag in the other hand, hit the skid mark with the solvent and immediately follow with the wet rag (it looks like the solvent is evaporating immediately, but there is some residue)

4. Refold both rags so that the next spot you hit, you're not dragging what you just picked up onto the next spot

The most common errors when cleaning with solvents relate to enthusiasm. When it works on a little spot, folks figure it's a good idea to give the boat a sponge bath with lacquer thinner. Not. Solvents should be reserved when a spot won't respond to anything else.

The other damage I see is on larger boats when someone has been carrying a dripping solvent-laden rag around (generally accompanied by a gallon of solvent with the cap off).

Make sense?

P.S. - Collanite also makes a good cleanser wax - 920 or 925? It says it's for fiberglass, but it's in the same family as the 3M product.

[Lew Barrett]

Try a good soap and water wash first. Biodegradable automotive products are a good way to go. Turtlewax makes a cheap version of Zymol auto shampoo that I buy by the gallon, but you can decide for yourself what to use. If you are serious about detailing, a wash is always the first step. Tough spots can be treated either as Margo suggests, or with polishing compounds in a variation of Todd's suggestions. I don't like resorting to solvents as a first step, so I usually go with the polishing step locally.

As much as I enjoy much of Thorne's observations, I agree that the scrubbie sponge is not an option but is a good way to ruin a paint job. I have a big boat to detail myself, and nothing beats a good general cleaning as a first step before settling in to worry over individual stains. Sometimes, a good general wash is all that's really needed to pass, and I try to remember that with detailing, one always goes with the least invasive step first.

[sawcutmill]

Simple Green, Vinegar,& water, in thirds.......wash down with a sponge, PT's or cloth, then rinse, let dry,and try the wax , works great for me!

[Robert W. Long]

Thanks to all of you for you advice. I will go with Lou's wash suggestion first. The cleaner wax sounds right too but I will wait and see. I may decide to paint the boat inside and out after I see how it looks when nice and clean. We trailered the boat from Chicago to Mendocino after buying it and even though it has a cover it got quite a lot of road grime.
Thorne I look forward to meeting sometime at one of his events.:)

[Todd Bradshaw]

One cool trick for long-distance transport that the hard-core Starboat sailors used to do was to wipe the hull down with liquid soap (dishwashing soap, etc.) and let it dry on the hull (no rinsing). Then when they got to the race location, they would rinse the boat down with a hose and have a clean hull. I did kind of wonder though, what happened if they drove through a rainstorm on the way - suds on the street?

[MiddleAgesMan]

Windex has ammonia in it and ammonia accelerates the yellowing of whites and very light colors. One or two uses isn't going to make much difference but don't develop a Windex habit.

You didn't say if the Interlux is one- or two-part. If the latter, it should stand up to just about any solvent you throw at it.

[Thorne]

I use the sponge part of the scrubbie / sponge for most of the cleaning, turning it over to the scrubbie when I hit tar, oils and other stuff that the sponge won't get. But the boat is a small one, painted with Rustoleum marine and Kirby's paints, varnished with Rustoleum marine varnish.

If anyone uses a strong degreaser like Simple Green or liquid bleach in a mix, be sure to wear rubber/nitrile gloves and skin protection -- that sort of stuff is very bad for skin.

Robert, hope to see you at an event soon! Be sure to check out the TSCA calendars/websites for both Sac/SF and Lost Coast chapters -
http://www.tsca.net/LostCoast/index.html
http://www.tsca.net/Sacramento/

My boating calendar has a rough comglomeration of their events -
http://www.luckhardt.com/boatcalendar.html

[Robert W. Long]

thanks for the links Thorne, no doubt we will see you sometime. Our boat is a Caledonia Yawl, a little large for some of your venues maybe, maybe not. The paint is one part and I only tested the windex on one spot then I got tired, so no harm done. the liquid soap trick sounds ingenious.

[ssor]

I have found that carpet shampoo for the machines is effective on almost every type of dirt.

[snow(Alan H)]

I don't know whether or not you want wax in it, but we've used 3M "One Step" cleaner/wax on a number of boats painted with Interlux Brightside and it does wonders for them. It's a thick, liquid wax with a little bit of polishing compound in it and is great for bringing back a nice look and shine to dull, oxidized, or mildly scuffed paint. I've had a couple boats where I was pretty sure repainting was the only way I would ever get them looking good again and this stuff did a very repectable job of cleaning them up.

I bought some of this in the weekend & tried it out on the paint job - great product, removed some ooppss marina berthing marks. Expensive at NZ$50 for a litre.

[Bob Triggs]

Remember that anything you use to clean, then rinse etc, will end up in the water. Even on land, with a septic system or sewage treatement system etc, it all ends up in the ground water and sew water. And eventually into the food chain too. www.watoxics.org (http://www.watoxics.org)

[Scott Rosen]

Trisodium phosphate in warm water with a sponge or soft rag. You can buy it at any paint or hardware store.