Detailing a house boat?

B

BlueLibby04

New member
I posted this over on Meguiars but figured I would post it here too. Need all the advice I can get with this since Im truly a newb at detailing a house boat.



I do not need to compound anything since its mostly just paint(I think) and vinyl but the top front looks heavily oxidized or something. I cannot walk on that part so I have no clue how Ill get to that to at least use a cleaner wax on it. Ill probably just use Megs cleaner wax(regular cleaner wax) on it since I dont have any marine wax.



On the roof deck, it is fiber glass with a gel coat(again, I think) but idk what to use to clean something like that with given its huge. Any ideas there? Thats really the dirtiest part other than the front top. The previous owners got all the sides redone other than the top front it seems.



Thanks for any advice! Here are some pics:



You can see in this pic how the top part up there with the strips and the fly bridge are looking kinda crappy.



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top front:



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Standing on the front looking back:



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I know you like Meguiar's products...If you have a Bass Pro Store near you, they carry a lot of the Meguiar's Marine line.



Regarding reaching hard to get to areas for waxing...I remember a thread on the Meguiar's board a long time ago where Superior Shine tapeed a long stick to his PC to polish a bus or RV or something.
 
Whooo weee that's a lot of area to clean!

Think about Starbrite's products. They have a real awesome PowerPine or SuperOrange concentrate you could use with a long-reach brush and powerwasher as step 1, use their polish (PN#80100) to remove oxidation for step 2 and finally their Premium Marine polish (PN#85716P) to seal it all up. For the deck you should use their Non-skid Deck Cleaner.



Hope this helps!

Ed
 
oh man, that is a lot of area to clean! I don't think I would even touch that house boat without a pressure washer and some good APC. Good luck on cleaning that boat.
 
Thanks for the advice.



JonP, I will have a pressure washer, a nice big brush on a pole and the meguiars brush for paint with me.



I have a gallon of megs APC that I will be using cut 10:1 on almost everything including all the vinyl on the outside and such. Ill probably follow that with #40 on the exterior seats and things.



I may make a order from ADS for some boat wash and 'cleaner wax.' Im not sure if the cleaner wax for boats is any different than regular cleaner wax though. Boat wash could also be the same as everything else. :nixweiss
 
The presure washer is a must. I think the boat wash will be stronger than a car shampoo...more alkaline to get grime and algae better. The canvas top I think may need a good fabric cleaner like 303 or equivalent and with care, the pressure washer will work well there too. Is that deck an anti skid hard deck or indoor/outdoor carpet?... Power washing works there, but mind your run off as depending on cleaners you could get into trouble there.

Oh ...and I don't think I'd be putting a pc on a pole!



Be sure and get some after shots and post back.
 
ScubaStevo said:
I think I'd walk away from that job.
Click to expand...



Walking away from a job doesn't pay bills very well. If charged right, this could be some real pocket change to take to the bank.
 
ScubaStevo said:
I think I'd walk away from that job.
Click to expand...





Its hard to walk away when its yours/your families. Guy at the docks charges $350 to wash+wax them but its untelling how he does it, how good of a job he will do, and what products he uses. Most people do not understand that just a 'wax' isnt enough, thats the last step. So if you look at it like that we will be taking $350 to the bank for just the outside. That doesnt include the interior.



Ill try my best to take tons of afters of everything.



Only thing I really need now is a good boat wash for the top. Ill probably just use regular megs DC soap for the sides since its readily available and cheap(Ill need alot). Ill probably check out walmart and see what kinda starbrite products they have for the wash.



Im still unsure how to get that front looking better. Ill decide what products I need once I wash it, probably be either the color restorer or HD oxidation remover. I swiped some of it with my finger and it seemed like most of 'chalky' substance was sitting on the surface.



Just to keep everyone occupied, heres some pics of the engines and generator.



It has dual Volve 500 engines(GM 5.0's). They put out around 210hp at the crank, idk what kinda torque they put out.



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Generator has a 1.5l I-4 OHC engine. Puts out around 109amps.



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I would give the local houseboat dealer a visit and inquire about how/what they use to clean these boats. Talking with someone who does it alot may help you bigtime! If it were a 100' yacht I could help ya but I have never touched a houseboat like that.
 
murf'n'surf said:
I would give the local houseboat dealer a visit and inquire about how/what they use to clean these boats. Talking with someone who does it alot may help you bigtime! If it were a 100' yacht I could help ya but I have never touched a houseboat like that.
Click to expand...
That sounded pretty snooty - So asside from being smaller and less expensive, how is this different?

:LOLOL



Sometimes I think it's real easy to get hung up on the fact that it floats - It's just a house...er, well more like a trailer, that floats ... so don't overlook the obvious household cleaning methods that you might use if it was setting on a pad instead of in water.



Disclaimer: I'm no expert in detailing boats - just applying some common sense here.
 
Not being snooty at all. There is a huge difference between the 2 -- for starters there looks to be zero gelcoat to polish, no diamond plated engine room bilge planks, windlasses, teak decking, stainless rails, etc. and so on. Alot of the panesl are covered with stickers wich may scratch or tear if the wrong product is used. I am sure that the dealer/manufacturer can tell this fine person that the canopy easily comes down in such a manner to clean it or dont waste your time trying to take it apart, etc. and what to use and more importantly what NOT to use for cleaning. I do agree that common sense will prevail but the dealer has better insight to the exact product at hand.
 
toyotaguy said:
...I think it would be a good 3-4 man job...
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Sure is. Since it's a family job, he could enlist the services of some volunteer swabbies to help!!

Geez, I've been working for 16 hours on my 1998 19' Baja and still have about 6 hours to go! I always ask for help but people run for the hills until they see it hooked up and ready for water.
 
Hey, B.L.



You may want to check with Stokley's Marine on Nicholasville Road. They'll carry a pretty nice line of products. They also carry Toon Brite which is a marine specific company. Let me know if I can be of any help...remember, I'm right here in Lexington.



I'm assuming that's Cumberland, correct?
 
Its on Caverun.



I should be in Lexington looking for some batteries(dang inverter batteries are bad) so Ill stop by there and see what all they have.



Family will be helping but mainly my pop and me. For now getting the party deck looking good is #1 priority since thats where everyone will be in a couple weeks. Ill test some products I have for the front and see if I can make a dent in that. Sides shouldnt need more than a good coat of cleaner wax but Ill probably have to do it by hand given it has so many vinyl stickers. :( Ill prolly just pressure wash the aluminum hull to see what that will do for it.



Thanks for all the advice everyone. And that didnt seem snooty, I understand thats its not a yacht. :)



ohh, and yes, all the canvas comes off. The canvas around the front stays on all winter to protect all that and comes off for the summer. The canvas on the top stays on during the summer and comes off during the winter. The canvas on top is held on with around 100,000 zip ties and the canvas around the front just clips on. I probably wont clean the canvas on the top till it comes off in the fall. I would like to clean and coat the canvas around the front with water/stain proofer once we take it off in the next week or so.
 
Got it all cleaned up! Didnt do anything for removing oxidation since I just didnt have the stuff to do it. There was a guy there cleaning another house boat. I noticed him putting something on it after he washed it so I got him to come over and put some on your fly bridge to see what it would do. All the guy did was wipe it on(took 5 times on ours) and it left a nice shine. I read up on it some and people compare it to a clear coat. I read where some complained about it peeling off or turning yellow so we will see. I ordered two bottles at $40 per bottle. If I dont like it Ill sell the other bottle to the guy that details around the docks.



Mostly everything was pressure washed. Everything on the top was pressure washed. The sides were sprayed down and washed via a soft brush on a pole with some marine wash I found at walmart. They top and sides seem to be in great shape with little black streaking but the fly bridge(front top) is in rough shape. Ill probably use that 'new glass 2' on it first just as a good test.



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We had ordered HD tv but we didnt find out that HD uses a BIGGER dish till the guy got there to install it. We'll have to settle for plan old digital out on the boat I guess. We have HD at the house but its through a land line. This Dish crap is all new to us. :confused:



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Great turn-a-round!!



About that dish.......you can have HD if you want. The D-TV techs are not allowed to install the big dish unless they can mount it "by the book". Call them back up and tell them you want the HD dish and that you will install it yourself. Considering it is a boat, I would mount it to something you build that sits in the corner of the deck -- that will make it easy to move it around to get the signal.
 
Thanks murf. Just how much bigger is the HD dish? So far weve gotten 3 big storms and weve not had it for a month yet. Dont want it to rip the freaken mounts off.
 
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