An Unabashed Product Endorsement

[dwaynec]

This is a shameless plug for Flitz metal and fiberglass polish.

As you may have read, the boat was repainted below the waterline last year. As part of the process of getting her ready for repaint we made the decision to remove the paint from the rubrails that a prior owner had applied. We were able to remove the rubrail in the cockpit area and strip the paint to the the bare (annodized?) aluminum on those pieces. the rest of the rubrail needed to have the paint sanded off because each of the screw headed bolts are backed by a nut where it cannot be accessed. Long story short all of the annodizing on most of the rubrail is history! When I sanded the paint off the rails I used a random orbital sander with 220 grit paper. This left the rails nice and silver with a really unattractive etch pattern. My thought at the time was to keep resanding the rails with finer papers until the scratch pattern was mostly removed. That was plan A.

Today my Admiral was out cleaning some paint out of the screw heads that we hadn't gotten out last fall when most of the sanding was done. I decided that I would see how much extra work really had to be done to get the rails looking good. I got out my (old) can of Flitz and my (very old Black and Decker) sander polisher and started on one of the rails that had been sanded. To my amazement the Flitz and the polisher had the section I was working on looking absolutely fantastic within a very short time! In less than a half hour I had a four foot section of aluminum polished to the point to where it looked as good as or better than the rubrail on the Fairline berthed next to us. The paintedrail1.jpg shows what we started with last year. The annodizedrail1.jpg shows the rail that was stripped when removed from the boat (replaced for the winter. the poslishedrail1.jpg shows the rail about half done with the left portion polished and the right portion sanded. This was when the old polisher said it was done.

Flitz is one of the most amazing paint and metal maintenance products I have ever used. I use it regularly to get rid of the black streaks in the paint as well as to polish the paint. It gets the chrome and stainless looking great. The amazing thing is there is no abrasive in this product, just cleaning and polishing agents. The only abrasive is in the pad or towel that is being used to apply and remove the product.

I will try and attach some pics to show our progress.
Dwayne

 

[Genesis]

I've used that product before and it truly is amazing on metals - I too recommend it strongly.....

 

[captbuddy]

Where do you purchase this stuff. Auto or boat store?
Thanks,
captbuddy

 

[dwaynec]

Best place I have found is on the web. Cheapest has been about $35 for a two pound (quart) can. Usually around $45 to $55 plus shipping. Two pound can lasts me about three years when I use it for black streak removal and just general polishiing.

I was leary of using the product on the Hatt since it is painted, but it works real well. A little goes a long way.

 

[REBrueckner]

My aluminum rails could use some polishing. I have some areas that are still shiny, but most sections are dull and rough...I don't know where there is anodizing and where there isn't.
Can flitz be used on anodizied portions of railing?? Do the rought portions need to be sanded first, then "Flitzed" ???

And while we are on the subject, how should aluminum rails be prepared prior to painting??

 

[Traveler 45C]

I’ll need some clarification on this also because I want my rails to look like Dwayne’s. Man they look good!

Shouldn’t we want to keep the anodizing on the rails? Won’t sanding take it off? Will the Flitz take it off? What are you gonna’ put on there to keep those rails looking that good? I’m thinking a clear coat would be the best.

 

[dwaynec]

Flitz by itself will not remove the annodizing. However, the friction generated by the buffer will ultimately remove the annodizing given enough time. Much faster to sand it off and then polish. Flitz will remove corrosion.

My thought is that if your annodizing is in good shape (mine wasn't) then I wouldn't remove it. Now that mine is gone, I know that I am going to have a recurring maintenance task to keep the rails looking good. That being said, once the rails are completely polished out, the recurring maintenance will be MUCH easier and faster.

When we repainted the hull last year, I considered just repainting the rails since they were already painted. However, the paint was chipping/pealing away because whoever painted them had performed zero preparation for painting. The only way I know you can get paint to stick to the aluminum is to sand it and then prime it.

I have the same problem with my window frames on the salon. Right now they look like something that you would expect on a derelect! If time permits, they will get pulled this year and stripped. If the annodizing is in reasonable shape I will not sand and polish. Trouble is that even using stripper it is entirely possible, that the frames will not look that good when stripped, and then it is going to be back to the sander and polisher.

 

[Traveler 45C]

How can one tell if the anodizing is still on there? I have zero experience in this area.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[MikeP]

I use Flitz as well and think it's excellent but it does contain a mild abrasive. If you use it on a painted or polished surface, it has the same action as fine rubbing compound. This may be good or bad, depending on how you use it and what you expect from it. It will eventually remove paint just as any abrasive will.

I found it works beautifully on SS railings and fiberglass panels but was not useful in hand polishing the aluminum trim around the flybridge overhang, the aluminum rubrail or the aluminum diamondplate in the engine room. I have not tried machine polishing these items.

 

[richardoren]

Flitz for Glitz?

Hi Dwayne,

This is good news, especially thanks for posting those pictures which show the shiny results of your efforts.

Have any of you ever used Simichrome or Mother's Aluminum Polish, Yachttex or Collonites which were all previously endorsed by others here in the Hatteras forum?

It would be good to know if indeed Flitz works best, especially when applied with a power polisher, as the others may have a bigger grit abrasive which would give quicker results with hand rubbing but might not give as nice a finish after buffing. Or might they have a finer grit abrasive than Flitz? Some say that the finest grit in Simichrome loses its edge in terms of shine in no time due to exposure to water. So this might be a case where "better" isn't "best", especially when you factor in the higher cost for the shinier polish.

So is it Flitz for Glitz?

Rich

 

[MikeP]

I used to use Simichrome all the time on motorcycles. But that was years ago. The first time I used Flitz - which I found at the NY boat show 3-4 years ago - I remember saying to myself, "Looks and smells like Simichrome!" Wenol is another similar product.

Although I use Flitz quite a bit, I often prefer using Never-dull on some items because it's more conveniant to use the cotton wadding. I'd bet money that Wenol, Simichrome, and Flitz are all essentially the same chemical compound in a paste carrier under different brand names and that Neverdull is the same chemical compound impregnated in cotton wadding.

 

[dwaynec]

I have used Mothers Aluminum Polish a lot in polishing the shovel heads, etc. on my old Harley. That is another great product, but seems to only work well on aluminum. For small jobs I would use it instead of the Flitz as it seems to do a better job when working by hand. However, I have not had great luck when using it with a polisher. Maybe I just don't have the right angle on the dangle. Flitz works better for me when I am doing a big job that requires a polisher on aluminum.

It is pretty easy to tell if annodizing is present. Get some aluminum polish and try to polish a small area by hand. If the polish doesn't start turning black and ugly pretty quickly, the annodizing is there. As I said earlier, if the annodized rails are in good shape (not badly scratched or scuffed) I would leave it.

Since a prior owner had painted mine and they looked like s..t I had little choice but to sand. Since removing the paint it is quite evident that prior owners had NOT been real gentle when pulling into slips and or locks. The rails were pretty well scratched up and are even bent in a couple places. I would really like to replace two sections, but the Admiral has stated that if I want to keep important parts of my body I had better not start tearing apart the inside of the boat so I can replace the bad pieces.