Tools for cleaning the boat?

luckydude

luckydude

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I hate my boat cover so my 228 sits outside and recently there were some high winds and I have tree sap all over the boat.
I know about the Magic Eraser sponges but the thought of scrubbing my entire boat with those tiny sponges makes me want to cry or something.

I know there car tools like buffers, I'm wondering if there is something like a Magic Eraser on a buffing wheel or something similar? I literally have
to Magic Eraser my entire boat. Sigh.
 
Shurhold has a DA brush attachment for the non-skid.
 
I recently added a couple of cleaning tools to reduce my elbow grease:

-drill brushes / they attach to my battery-powered drill and do reasonably effortless circular cleaning … you need to be careful on upholstery, some of the sets on Amazon have combinations of soft and hard bristels
-a lightweight and cheap battery-powered pressure washer that draws water from a 5-Gal bucket. I can mix up various concoctions depending on the strength needed and the area of the boat I’m cleaning (vinyl, bright-work, topside etc.). The pressure washer is “weak” enough that it won’t cause damage to my vinyl (unless I’m really stupid) and cheap enough that if this off-script use (shooting chemicals through the gun) … it won’t bother me to much I need to replace it in 2-years

Good luck on your cleaning effort.
 
ilmmct said:
I recently added a couple of cleaning tools to reduce my elbow grease:

-drill brushes / they attach to my battery-powered drill and do reasonably effortless circular cleaning … you need to be careful on upholstery, some of the sets on Amazon have combinations of soft and hard bristels
-a lightweight and cheap battery-powered pressure washer that draws water from a 5-Gal bucket. I can mix up various concoctions depending on the strength needed and the area of the boat I’m cleaning (vinyl, bright-work, topside etc.). The pressure washer is “weak” enough that it won’t cause damage to my vinyl (unless I’m really stupid) and cheap enough that if this off-script use (shooting chemicals through the gun) … it won’t bother me to much I need to replace it in 2-years

Good luck on your cleaning effort.
Click to expand...

I bought the drill brushed and the water fried my Milwaukee M12 drill. So that's why I'm asking, I want those brushes or even bigger ones,
but powered by something that is OK being wet.
 
Bummer. I’ve not had that happen to my Dewalt stuff, but I’ll proceed with more caution next deep cleaning.
 
Chemicals are your friend here - not something that's also going to sand away your gelcoat. Get a bunch of cheap, white rags (or towels) as well - paper towels don't work as well. Acetone will definitely do it - but it evaporates quickly so try some things like paint thinner, mineral spirits or naptha. They should work and they evaporate slower so in cases like this they can work better. Goof Off or Goo Be Gone are other things to check out. But those first ones are cheaper and are available at Home Depot - although I think I've seen at least one of the latter two there, too.

Learn to love your cover :)
 
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You could try a cheap foam canon. Foam it up let it sit. When most of the foam is gone repeat a couple of more times. That may soften it enough to wipe off.
 
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Don't use magic erasers unless absolutely necessary. You need to get the sap off with a solvent. Otherwise you will just smear it around.
Lot's of solvents work but an easy solution is to get some tar and sap remover from an automobile supply store. Once the sap is off, then you would proceed with a thorough scrubbing with soap followed by buffing, polishing, of compounding as needed and finally waxing.
Wax on wax off!
 
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I stand corrected. It contains turpentine and ethyl acetate . I don't know where my idea of benzene came from:(
I have deleted my misleading comment.
 
I'd try every cleaner I could before the magic eraser route.
 
Yep, pass on the magic eraser for sure. That new boat of yours will not look new anymore once you dull the hull shine.
 
Like Dennis said, chemicals are the best method. I always remove tree sap with Mineral Sprits on a rag. then wash with soap/water and dry. If you keep your boat polished, you will need to repolish afterwards.
 
Before I went crazy with the chemicals, I would take a big sponge soaked with water, lay it on a flat surface that has sap, and come back in 30 minutes or so, and see if it comes off, either with elbow grease, or with a pressure washer. If it does, I would wait for a good, overnight soaking rain, and hit it with the pressure washer before the sun got to it again. If that kind of rain is in short supply in your part of California, and water restrictions allow, turn a lawn sprinkler on it about 4am.
Most of us are east of the Mississippi, and don't even know what kind of tree sap you are dealing with.
 
When I was a lot younger, I worked as a mechanic in a service station. We would clean tree sap with a rag soaked in gasoline! Times were different then and today, that practice would be frowned upon and rightly so.

For the record, gas worked very well.
 
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I used denatured alcohol for removing tree sap from my truck and then washed afterwards, worked great. A cheap solution.
 
I am not sure if alcohol works as well on tar which was mostly the stuff we would see in the service station. Now that I think of it, the rag with gas was always for road tar. I don't know if it worked well on sap:)
 
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