My dau. and soninlaw have a dagger dimention canoe they store in their garage always. The boat is a light color and has staining (from moisture in the leaky floor of the garage?) I tried to clean it with a household cleaner and had not luck. any suggestions about what to use to remove the dark streaky stains?
dampen a rag with acetone …
… use protective rubber gloves or similar .
Qt. cans can be purchased at local hardware stores for a few bucks . (ps., not nail polish remover)
Start out being conservative with the acetone , as you wipe the stains out and determine that it is working , you may want wet the rag more for faster cleaning … keep an eye on the evaporation rate of the acetone , you do not want it to stay liquid on the vinyl surface (don’t allow it to puddle) for very long … wipe it off .
Vinyl when left in contact with acetone for extended period of time will begin to soften , and longer than that the vinyl begins to disolve … wiping the vinyl surface of royalex with acetone on a rag has never shown any ill effect or caused a problem because the acetone evaporates quickly … I’ve cleaned a whole royalex canoe this way , have not had any problem with the vinyl skin … cleaned easily and went smooth .
Do it outside in ventelated air , best not do it in the garage were fumes can build up .
Solution…
Just paddle the boat. And hit some rocks too. The worse and more beat up it looks, the better. Consider being less anal.
is that like anal in you wipe …
– Last Updated: Aug-04-09 11:13 AM EST –
...... your butt after taking a dump , and so not to be anal you recommend never wiping your butt off ... or does this only apply to your boat ??
So if you clean your bathroom , your kitchen , your house , your cloths , your body , your boat , etc. ... by doing so are you saying that it is being anal to be cleaner than dirtier ??
Are we to assume from your comment that you are not anal , and as such a digustingly filthy person , or just that you think cleaning your boat is anal ??
cleaning vinyl
i have a 22 year old rolex canoe that had some stains and started to look it’s age. tried the usual cleaners but they did’t work to good.i had some brite white (spray on hose off tire cleaner)i sprayed it on and let it sit for a min. and used a nylon scrub pad and was very happy with the results. then i used 303 to finish.the boat looks ten years younger
cripes nessmuk
– Last Updated: Aug-05-09 8:20 PM EST –
ya' mean ya'd rather have some stains on your boat, to be removed by loving touches of some granite, than have it be cleaned by using potentially damaging chemicals whose only redeeming quality in the royalex world is for patching purposes?
Pilotwings, perhaps if the environmental stain is sewage, it could be compared to wiping your butt, otherwise, I think nessmuk hit it spot on.
Nessmuk, hope to see you on a river again some day,perhaps the Toe or Esopus again, one where the boats are buried in wavetrains and no-one can tell, much less worry about...any blemishes ;-). Just paddle the dang thing. Or use chemicals that pollute the environment to appease your sense of aesthetics. Your call.
rocks , rough stuff , no prob. …
– Last Updated: Aug-05-09 11:47 PM EST –
...... nessmuck's post was just fine ... until the put down and judgemental sounding "anal" part ... way out of line , there are better and less offenseive ways to say a beat up boat is ok by me , instead of you are anal if you care enough about your boat to want to clean it .
I personally don't mind beat up stuff (acually kinda like it better that way , shows it can take a lickin and keep on tickin), also gives me some inspiration to fix it up sometimes ... but I can appreciate others who might think differently and don't throw out put downs on them ... the anal part was just anal .
It's one thing to fool around and joke with your buds ... quite another to broad sweep a bunch of people (unknowns) and classify them as anal .
Chemicals that polute the enviroment daggermat ... what a hoot ... you drive a vehical and participate in the American culture or product purchases ??
we all pollute
but it makes more sense to burn that gas and utilize it’s energy than to simply dump it on the ground, don’t ya’ think. We can all take steps to reduce our negative impact.Pollution for the sake of aesthetics seems hypocritical to me. I notice you don’t see shades, just black and white, in your judgements.Not sure what term comes to mind for this condition…heh, heh ;-).
Have had some real luck
using mechanics hand cleaner like D&L or Goop. Any of that stuff that you use in the garage to clean up after an engine change or the like seems to do well. Sometimes smear it on in the shade and let it sit short bit. Wipe and rinse. Not many types of dirt stand up to it.
DO NOT USE ACETONE
on royalex, it will melt the vinyl. Only use Denatured Alcohol.
GB-60 works well, another product called “fresh Start” works well too.
didn’t melt mine , not even soften it …
… didn’t even get any green from outside skin to show on a white rag , no light color from the inside skin to show on green rag .
Just because acetone can disolve vinyl , doesn’t mean it happens instantaniously , or even quickly .
I’m sure if left in contact with the exterior vinyl layer of the Royalex , as in allowed to puddle and remain that way for extended period of time (like 20 minutes or more) , it would begin to soften the skin some before complete melt down … but using acetone on a rag to wipe the skin doesn’t hurt the vinyl at all … evaporates quickly ya know .