How to Polish Your aluminum Tubes and Logs: 5 StepsHero 8 polishing pontoon logs.
When you first bought your boat, how shiny your pontoon tubes and logs were?Maybe it is time to get them looking nice and new with an effective and efficient pontoon polish.
I am going to show you how to polish a pontoon boat so that you get stunning results, with clean, slick, and shiny aluminum logs in under 3 hours, plus you can save a lot of money in doing so.
These tips will help you to keep the value of your boat from going down, as well as ensure that you get improved performance, because who wants to buy a used pontoon with algae and dirt all over the tubes?
If you have ever taken your boat to a dealer and asked them to clean up your logs and tubes, chances are they quoted you a hefty price for creating a mirror-like result, and then finishing it off with Shark Hide.
When you can do it yourself using cheap and easily accessible materials, that price is ridiculous.
I will show you what the best products are in this guide, and you will have the shiniest and best-looking pontoon logs out on the water, if you buy some cheap polishing products.
You will never get a great polished finish on your logs unless you prepare them first.In saltwater areas, getting rid of all that nasty algae, barnacles, osmosis, zebra mussels, scum, debris, and more from the tubes can be a problem.
Hopefully you won't have any of this build-up to remove if you have cleaned your pontoons regularly.If you do, you need to remove it before you start the pontoon boat polish.
You can skip a wash-down if you keep your pontoons in good condition and there is no build-up of scum or algae.
This is similar to using a pressure washer in straight up and down motions, until the tubes are clean of debris.If you don't have a pressure washer, I would recommend buying a small portable one.
Use a wet rag if you don't want to spend that money.It will take a long time and will be very hard work.
It is essential that you do this step as it will make the results last a long time.If you don't do this before applying pontoon polish, all of your hard work is going to come back off after one trip on the water.
The best product for this is toilet bowl cleaner.It is a lot cheaper than using an acid bath or any other specific treatment as some pontooners do and gives you exactly the same results.Really.
It is simple.All you have to do is get a bucket, mix up 1 part toilet bowl cleaner with 2 parts water, and use a cheap sprayer to apply the cleaning mix to your tubes.
You will save a lot of time if you use a sprayer, it will give you more time to focus on the later steps where we polish the aluminum pontoon logs.
To do it correctly, spray one section at a time.Leave it on for a few minutes, but don't let it dry.You will have to clean it again if it dries on.You can get the best results by spraying the tubes with cleaner in smaller sections.
If you leave the cleaner on for a few minutes in one section, spray it off with clean water.After spraying the cleaner with water, I use a wet cloth to give it a quick rub down to make sure.
A pontoon polish is not required.If you want to know how to polish a pontoon boat, stick with it, but if you just wanted to clean them, you can skip over and go to the next step.
The tube and log polishing step will make your aluminum pontoons look brand new.
You have to have a polisher.You can buy the Porter-Cable one on Amazon.
I prefer the Porter-Cable product to the big names on the market, but only due to bad experiences I have had with those products in the past.If you press hard with them, you can leave marks on the logs.
For me, the Porter-Cable is the ideal tool for achieving the best pontoon polish because it seems a little bit more gentle.
It's simple to clean the aluminum pontoon tubes.In small areas, you go in circular movements.This can leave polish lines that a very keen eye can pick up on, so don't go up and down.The best way to blend in any lines is to go in circular motions all the time.
My experience polishing a 22-foot pontoon boat was just over two hours.
If you are a stickler for detail like me and like to polish the parts that nobody would ever see, the aluminum logs have a large surface area.
If you leave any of the pontoon polish on the toons, they will not look good.Please don't un-do all your work by leaving polish on the aluminum tubes because you've already gone to so much trouble to prepare, clean, buff, and polish.
We can apply the Shark Hide sealant once we rinse the logs down and make sure that nothing is left on.
I am sure you have heard of Shark Hide, it is very popular in the pontoon community.It is really, really good at what it does.
Boat owners swear by it for protecting aluminum logs and tubes.Everyone I know uses it, and everyone on the Internet does the same.Don't be the only one who does not.
It won't stop algae from growing on your pontoons, but it will protect your logs from stains, oxidation, rust, weathering, salt spray, and pitting.It will help your pontoon polish stay mirror-like for a long time.