The Skipper's Blog

Scott Husslein asked:

I have a 1995 Mainship MY with Aluminum railings around the entire boat. They appear to have a clear anodised coating. The upper part of the Hard Top support/Radar arch under has a fair amount of pitting and oxidisation. The railings are dull oxidised and stained. I need advice on how to best clean and protect them. Is Alumabuff or Alumibrite a better choice?

Answer:

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Hi Scott,

I think the best way to answer your question is to have you look at the results that another customer (T.Miller) got on his aluminum tower shown below.

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Click on Images to Enlarge

Before

Before

After

Here are some before and after pictures of my aluminum wakeboard tower. I followed your advice and wet sanded the whole tower to remove the pits. Cleaned it with Alumabrite and Boat Clean Plus and protected it with Alumetron. As you can see, it looks new again. Wow. I’m happy that I didn’t have to replace it.

T Miller

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You will need to wet sand it with about 800 grit wet/dry sandpaper (be sure to sand in one direction only to match the grain) to get an even finish and knock down the corrosion as much as possible. Next use Alumabrite CBX to brighten the aluminum and more importantly passivate the metal. It will penetrate into any remaining pits and stop future corrosion. After you can protect the aluminum with Alumetron and if you want greater protection and ease of clean up, especially in areas that experience a lot of hand holding or scuffing, apply VS721 on top of the Alumetron.

Thanks for your question

Captain Aurora
Richard Kittar

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