Oxalic acid!

[Irmascherkid]

Hi all,
I have been pondering the use of using oxalic acid for bringing my bav30 top sides and hull back to a nice looking white, I have seen a few posts about the use of it but I'm a bit concerned about any reaction it may have with the anodised aluminium on the toe rail and around hatches also would it damage the Perspex on the hatches?

Any info regarding the use of this is as always greatly appreciated.

[Symphony]

While oxalid acid is suitable for removing localised stains it is not really the best for cleaning large areas. You could try by mixing it with wallpaper paste so it adheres to the hull, but suspect you will find it messy and difficult to get an even clean.

You are perhaps better using one of the commercially available gel coat restorers - all the major brands of cleaning products sell them, and suspect they are all effective. Plenty of material published about how to restore faded and stained gel coats. Essentially lots of hard work and use of the appropriate material for the different stages of the process.

None of the products, nor Oxalid are likely to aaffect aluminium but makes sense to just use it on GRP.

[Irmascherkid]

Thanks symphony,
With regards to the aluminium it was never intended to use the oxalic on it for cleaning, it was to ask if anyone had any damage done due to the inevitable fact that it will find its way on there, last thing anyone would want is to start off with great intentions and end up with a expensive repair.

[Lyra]

A surveyor, which I appreciate his opinion, once told me that frequent use of oxalic acid damages the gelcoat. He said this is one of the problems he sometimes found on charter boats which get cleaned to "perfect white" every week during the season. If it is for the occasional cleaning of stains then I guess there is no problem.

[Salty]

Somewhere I read a suggestion that there was a specialist product used by the manufacturers and installers of plastic window frames for houses for cleaning the plastic after installation. I went to my local builders merchant and they had a PVCu Solvent Cleaner made by Everbuild which claims to remove ingrained dirt from PVCu and most other plastics. It is a solvent, so you will need rubber gloves, and it’s flammable as well. On eBay it’s available for under £10 for a litre bottle and it seems to do a good job in removing dirty marks, though Y10 is better where it comes to removing rust stains.
I’ve also used various caravan cleaning products for removal of black streaks, and prior to polishing the hull I’ve used another caravan product called “Silky.” Silky is pretty good at removing dirty marks as well as providing an initial polish to the hull before finishing off with Starbright Marine Polish, though the starbright stuff has doubled in price since my last purchased, so I might be looking for an alternative sometime soon.

[Craig]

Salty,

Is the PVCu solvent merely Acetone?

Acetone is sold by Bunnings ( Australian equivalent of B&Q) to clean PVC and other plastics and is commonly used by builders to clean PVC pipes prior to gluing.

Craig
" Shirley Valentine"
Gold Coast
Australia.

[Salty]

Hi Craig, it’s not acetone, the following web address should hopefully take you to the Safety Data sheet provided by the manufacturer of the product I used. It’ll probably half frighten you to death, just remember it’s intended for people to use rather than walk away from!
https://www.everbuild.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Everbuild-PVCu-Solvent-Cleaner-V1.pdf

[tckearney]

I used it on my hull and was so pleased with the result I used it on my teak decks, that was a mistake!  I suffered with the deck glue coming adrift afterwards.  Avoid it if it will run anywhere near teak decks.

[Irmascherkid]

Thanks all for your replies, think I will give the oxalic acid a miss for this time until I can do some more research into it,