This weekend I started cleaning the aluminum on my pontoon and this is going to be a chore!! I did not get very far and now I am reevaluating my options. I used aluminum cleaner and polish (Mothers Brand) and I only ended up cleaning a 2 ft X 2 ft area before giving up. It did'nt even take off the water marks. Any other suggestions??

Find a place that washes tractor trailers, semis, big rigs- whatever you want to call them- they have an acid that will make aluminum look like new.Thats how they keep those rigs so clean and shiney. I had the truck stop a 377 and I35 clean a old v bottom boat for me for about $40

kwag, Just went through same issue. Academy sells a aluminum cleaner about $10 a quart alumabright i think dont quote me on that its ina white bottle blue labeling. 2 Quarts cleaned my 24' toon. Its an acid you brush on with a paint brush from bottom to top best to do in 4-6 foot sections and you wash it off prestty quik. Hard spot can go over a few times to get stubborn stuff to go away. Now it wont shine like new unless you follow up with a polish. I left mine as it was after the acid wash and wil follow up as needed. They look darn good.

+1

Toon Brite. You can find it at most dealerships.

Find a place that washes tractor trailers, semis, big rigs- whatever you want to call them
J-SPENCER
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For the time and effort, the truck stop is by far the best way to go. I spend about $50 every other year getting it cleaned at Kelly's truck stop. Looks like new every time.

I bet that stuff is nothing more than caustic soda. ( diluted).

dont know what they use OF but it sure did keep my truck rims purty. fastest easiest cheapest way to clean aluminum is the truck wash.

Go to an air conditioning supply house and get a gallon of the pink coil cleaner. Brush it on, hose it off 5 minutes later. It really works. Then comes the hard part if you want a chrome shine. Otherwise, just apply a product called Sharkhide and you're good for another 2 years. If you don't seal it with the Sharkhide, it will oxidize in about 4-5 weeks and you'll be right back where you started...watermarks and all. If you wnt a chrome finish, go to a site called pontoonstuff.com. They've got tons of posts with step by step instructions, brands, applicators, etc.

That stuff is "GREAT"

I used this on an older pontoon boat. I was like wow with not much elbow greae.

AlumaBrite and ToonBrite are O'Douls compared to stuff I used called "Alumbright". Note the missing "a" as there are many versions that play off the different spellings.

It was an unbelievable product with NO elbow grease. I tried it vs. a gallon of Toon-Brite I had and there was absolutely no comparison. I wet the logs and sprayed the Alum-Bright on and it foamed for about 3 minutes then I washed it off. No scrubbing, no anything. I was stunned!

You have to do a search on the web to find it in Gallons. I found it from a oil rig tool supply house in Houma, LA.

Here's what the logs looked like before:



Here's a shot of the Alum-Bright section (on the right) vs. the Toon-Brite section (on the left). It took 3 treatments of Toon-Brite to get even close to the one section of Alum-Bright.


Here's the after. Literally, this was a total of 5 minutes worth of "work".

I've used ToonBrite like Tommy mentioned and it works great. I also usd it on fiberglass boats that I forgot to wax before going to east Texas lakes and came home with scum line from hel7. ToonBrite takes that scumline off like nothing else on fiberglass. Just be sure to wash it off completely from the trailer. All this stuff mentioned is caustic.

thank you! Lots and lots of good information! I have tried to find the Alum-Bright here in town without any luck. Now I have several options. The alumabright is pretty easy to find. 1 gallon is ~$11 Again thank all of your for your help.

Do you guys take your pontoons off the trailer to clean? How do you get the parts of the toons that rest on the trailer bunks?
Thanks for any advice.