Cleaning regimen?

[waternutt]

Okay folks...I need some help again. Trying to get my supplies together before I go pick up my first boat and I am a bit overwhelmed with all the products and techniques for cleaning and keeping a boat looking like new. It seems 303 and Boat Bling products are well regarded as well as Salt Away. So I have just a few questions...

Does anyone hose down the entire boat with Salt Away or use it just for flushing?
What kind of soap do you use when washing the boat?
After washing and drying, would you use Hot Sauce on the boat and Vinyl Sauce on the vinyl?
What kind of wax do you use for the 1-2 times every year? Quickie Sauce?
I also read about spraying some water dispersant/lubricant all over the engines after washing?

As I said, just trying to gather supplies and get a routine down so I can keep my boat looking good. Appreciate any help.

 

[John McLaughlin]

Great question will be looking forward to what folks say

 

[Jeff L]

As a first time boat owner I don't have a ton of experience but this is what works for me;
1. Flush engines on hose per manual
2. Wash hull with meguiars marine soap
3. Spray down and wash inside with leftover soap, wipe down seats before they dry with an "absorber"
4. Ive used starbrite deck cleaner on the inside which worked pretty well, but not every time
5. I flush the engines with salt away and use the remaining on the hull & trailer.
6. I haven't waxed her yet but I do have "meguiars pure wax" which my dealer recommended
Also, I have a 303 product I bought that I put on the vinyl seats. The directions say to use it every 4-5 weeks.

So far my boat is clean, I got a lot of my info from searching this forum. I'm open to suggestions too.

 

[bronze_10]

for washing we use any kind of marine soap i prefer with wax in it.... i wax with meguiars marine wax .. we use Mr. Clean and a brush on the sea deck and use magic erasers on the vinyl follow immediately with boat bling vinyl sauce. We also use boat bling hot sauce when we take it out of the water as it is a hard water spot remover and preventer. In between wax jobs i use boat bling quickie sauce. Our boat is an 08 and i am often asked if the boat is bran new... boat bling products are amazing.!!

 

[newbote]

I am interested in what folks spray on their engines themselves to prevent corrosion - will be leaving it in salt water for a week in early June. Do folks just spray the whole engine down with a silicone spray?

As far as cleaning routine the only thing I would add is I use the starbrite polish with ptef. If you use it when the gel coat is new you will never need to wax or use a buffer. You just wipe it on with a towel let dry for 5 minutes or so and then rub off with a clean towel. I left my old boat in Florida outside and put this on twice a year and it still looked new after 5 years. It is so much less work then waxing (whole boat takes less then an hour) and lasts longer then wax. It was recommended to me by a detailer and I will never use anything else now.

 

[greg]

I spray my engines and pumps and pretty much everything on trailer, straps winch etc with
CRC 6008 6-56 Multi-Purpose Lubricant

 

[patrickgrizz]

I am interested in what folks spray on their engines themselves to prevent corrosion - will be leaving it in salt water for a week in early June. Do folks just spray the whole engine down with a silicone spray?

Also curious about this. Never messed with salt water before and probably leaving mine in salt for the week of the 4th of July. Would rather not have to pull it out halfway through for a cleaning if I don't have to.

 

[greg]

The crc 6-56 works great. Have two years on the boat. engines and pumps look like new.

 

[jdonalds]

I have two routines depending on salt water or not. With salt water a through cleaning is called for. With our local lakes being practically drinkable I don't do much at the end of a ride.

SALT:
1) Flush the engines with your choice of Salt flush (Salt Terminator, Salt Away, Vinagre, etc.)
2) Catch warm salt flush water coming out of the engines with some car wash soap. Hand wash all fiberglass surfaces with this mixture. Rinse with fresh water.
3) Spray the trailer with Salt flush in a container on the end of the hose.
4) Perhaps spray the engines in the engine compartment with Salt flush, taking care not to use a hard stream of water on the electronics.
5) Dry with towels where necessary
6) Leave things open so the boat can air dry.
7) Use one of the various products on the hull such as Hot Sauce, Turtle Wax ICE, etc.
8) Soak or wash any things that made contact with salt water (life jackets, dock lines, anchor lines, etc.) in a bucket of Salt flush and water. Allow to fully dry before stowing.

Fresh:
1) Wipe down fiberglass areas with a product such as Turtle Wax ICE, etc. Wipe dry.
2) lay out things to dry in the sun
3) open seat storage and other compartments to dry

In both cases, when things are dry, cover the boat.

Our local lakes have zero seaweed or any other growth. Water visibility is at least 30 feet. The lakes are so clean there are no water spots on the dark blue hull. This would obviously not be the normal case so in fresh water most boats would do well with engine flushing.

 

[Scott griffith]

Are you saying you use vinger instead of salt away does it work just as good

 

[Bennie]

I have limited knowledge but I will tell you what we do. We've had our boat since March 2015 and have boated in ONLY saltwater since the day we bought her new.

I flush the engines after every use, used to use Salt-Away, now I just fill the flush hose connection with dish soap then flush the engines.

We use the "delicate" nozzle on the pressure washer and rinse off the interior and exterior of the boat as well as the trailer. Wipe everything down with a rag and use "Seat Soap" on the vinyl. The hull also gets waxed about every six months.

As for the mechanical I spray down everything in the engine bay with a heavy dose of "Yamashield" after every oil change. .02

 

[jdonalds]

Are you saying you use vinger instead of salt away does it work just as good

I was stunned by how well vineger worked the first time I tried it. The only advantage is the Salt Terminator is said to leave a protective film inside the engine. I have no way to prove that but a gallon of the product will last more than a year so I used it instead.

 

[Scott griffith]

What about dish soap like Dawn or ivory anybody ever tried that

 

[newbote]

What about dish soap like Dawn or ivory anybody ever tried that

If you do that just know Dawn will remove wax as well - so on the side you had the pee stream it will take the wax off.

 

[OCMD]

Wax? Quick and easy....

Clean? A great product, Totally Awesome - at a dollar store...

 

[Bennie]

What about dish soap like Dawn or ivory anybody ever tried that

I use dish detergent all the time. My wife uses "Seventh Generation" cleaning supplies so I can't say much on the wax removal, but I can tell you that for it to eat wax it has to sit (in its concentrated form) on paint for quite a while.

Additionally, the cooling "pee" holes should be letting the water out at a decent pressure, not letting it dribble down the side of your boat.

 

[jdonalds]

Here is my suggestion regarding dish detergent. Take a gel coat area of your boat that isn't white where there are salt spots. Take a sponge and wipe the area with dish soap and see how well it works. Then take some vinegar and try the same thing.

All I know is when I first took my Honda ski on the ocean the black area of the ski had lots of salt caused marks. I tried various liquids that didn't work at all. Then I switched to white polish that had very fine grit which also didn't work. I tried more coarse rubbing compound with no luck. Then when I heard someone recommend vinegar I tried it and could have saved myself a lot of grief when I saw how well it removed the salt marks.

So my test for any liquid, Salt Terminator, Salt Away, dish detergent, or vinegar would be a test on a dark gel coat area of the boat. If it works on the gel coat I'd feel confident running it through the engines.

 

[Scott griffith]

Thanks for the Info guys was wondering if it's any better to flush with soap than salt away

 

[msavold]

I flush engines with Salt Away and then brush the outside with what's left in the dispenser of Salt Away and one of those extendable car wash brushes (something like this https://www.amazon.com/Carrand-93072-Flow-Thru-Aluminum-Extension/dp/B000CQ6C6S/ - boat's on a lift so the sides are hard to reach otherwise).
I put a garden hose quick connect on the end of the Salt Away "canister" to switch from engine nozzle to brush.
Running in brackish/salt water the dark blue hull looks like a salt lick when I'm done. My thinking is that the salt away will dissolve the salt crystals as I remove them - so that they don't become like sandpaper on the hull...