Hull maintenance/cleaning

[rndra]

Hi,

I don't se much discussion regarding hull maintenance on the forum and I wonder why ?

Anyway here is my problem :
Although nice and warm all year around (I am living in Malaysia) the fresh water where I run my EPIC 22BR Millenium edition is sometimes not very clear and it ends up giving a yellowish shade to the hull. If that was not enough I am using old tyres as fenders for my pontoon and over time the UVs affect the rubber and it makes ugly black marks on the hull.

So my question is this : what is the best way to keep the hull nice and clean. I have tried a lot of stuff from soap to car shampoo (even tried car polish once) and some work better than others but I have not found the stuff that keeps the hull nice, white and shiny. Any ideas ?

[toyotafreak]

There's a thread buried in the forum about removing hull scratches that was written by Cal, our resident VilageIdiot.

Overall, I'd personally suggest ruuning either the 3M or StarBrite lines to find the least-destructive combination that would work. And you've got to use a boat soap, because car soaps and even dish soap have agents that aren't too gelcoat-friendly. Read back through the owner's manual, too.

I bought some boat soap, 3M cleaner/restorer, rubbing compund, etc. this spring but spent so much time on the vinyl that I didn't get to the gelcoat.

And maybe buy some non-marking fenders? Either way, in that kind of environment, it's probably very important to keep a good coat of wax on the hull so that the yucky water eats wax instead of gelcoat.

[javman]

I recently tried two things to remove yellow hull stains.
1.  3M rubbing compound-this worked but it was very hard messy work.
2.  Bought Davis FSR (fiberglass stain remover) online and it was a wipe on-wipe off process.  No scrubbing or mess and it was really easy. 

For scratches and such it might require rubbing compound though

[festivus]

I need to bathe my boat in it.  The water line is too obvious. Maybe I can pay a few kids to finger paint the stuff on then wipe it off.

[epic_toy]

good idea, but put gloves on those kids! That FSR is acidic. I know this because I didn't use gloves the first time.

[dudebro22]

for the yellow stains the best thing is a rubbing compound with alot of rubbing and I work at a marina and what we use to take off rubber marks is acetone it doesnt hurt the hull but really will mess everything else up if it gets on it like your seats.  also if you get marks from your boat buddy from your trailer it will take it right off just keep it away from decals because it will remove the color off, as well as the whole decal.

[phenom_1819]

FSR.  The stuff works great.  If you can't find any, use toilet bowl cleaner.  I splurged for the FSR because I couldn't stand the thought of bathing my boat in the same crap that my crapper gets cleaned with.