Polishing Aluminum North River boat

[DanX]

I have a North River Seahawk (20' Aluminum fishing boat with offshore bracket) since April. I take the boat to a car wash and give it a good going over after every trip to the river (Columbia, Willamette).

It is in pretty good shape, but now I want to use Meguiers Marine Metal Polish and clean it up good. Should I do anything before I start putting this on, like using some hard commercial cleaning product? And I was going to put this on by hand -- any problems with that? And does it really do a decent job of preventing salt water issues? I also got Meguiers Metal Guard to put on afterwards.

Any help or suggestions are appreciated!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Polishing Aluminum North River boat

Where you at with this?

Sorry this slipped through the Cyber cracks...


Check out this thread,

Blinded by the shine

Before:


After:

[Jeepster04]

Re: Polishing Aluminum North River boat

Going along with this, what can we do to protect the aluminum after its polished like that?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Polishing Aluminum North River boat

Some of our metal polishes leave behind a protective coating, I know NXT All Metal Polysh does I'll have to check on the rest.

Our old Marine catalogs before 2005 when we discontinued M16 would recommend M16 for brightwork, (shiny metal), on boats to protect them in marine environments.

[JoeDirt]

Re: Polishing Aluminum North River boat

Reviving thread...

I still have some M16, is this a good topper for my cheap rowboat? I was staring at it today, and I just hit it with wheel brightener to clean it up, and want to lay something on top now to see how it does...

[Murr1525]

Re: Polishing Aluminum North River boat

Probably would want the surface cleaned first for best results.

[JoeDirt]

Re: Polishing Aluminum North River boat

I did hit it with 4:1 Wheel Brightener, it got rid of a LOT of crud.

This was one application:

Before (center section):




After (same center section):




I did hit it twice over the entire boat, it came out really nice. Dark out, so I'll have to get some more pics tomorrow.

I'm not looking for the mirror finish, just clean and protected. The Wheel Brightener was amazingly easy- literally about 30 seconds from spray to rinse. Eye opening if you're using it on unpainted aluminum rins- don't, or be very careful.

I may hit it with Nevr-Dull tomorrow, then top with M16 if that sounds right... I'm more concerned with protecting the aluminum (if that's needed) than shine. I know the Wheel Brightener cleaned pretty well, does it need protection? Thoughts? I've never done aluminum like this before...