C-Forum

need to clean 24 years of grime from a boat i just picked up a mad river ME. she looks new with original paper work. it has a sticky feel inside. i did one little spot inside and out with accetone. i know don;t use it. what is the miracle wash?

If it is just grime, Mr Clean Magic Eraser and some elbow grease will do the job. I have also had success with 409 Citrus Cleaner for stubborn grime...

If it is old glue, you may be stuck using a solvent... Probably less risk than a heat gun - especially with old royalex...

Some friends recently bought a Penobscot that is in pristine condition (not sure of the age) but is is tacky all over. Soap and water didn't do anything. I was wondering if maybe somebody had used a bug bomb in the garage where it was stored. We haven't gotten aggressive with it yet... Might try a citrus based cleaner...

Try the gentler, kinder things first. But when they don't work either acetone or MEK will remove that stuff. Don't dribble any into the boat but if you dampen a cloth or paper towel with the solvent and rub the hull, it will flash off before it does any damage.

Use Toluene instead of Acetone or MEK. It is much gentler to the boat and actually removes contact cement much faster than Acetone or MEK.

thanks for the tip jim. i hear you know about "old royalex".

I picked up a stained white Royalex boat a while back. Scrubbing Bubbles and Mr Clean Magic Erasers cleaned it up and didn't soften the vinyl. Car wax also helped, but the wax made it tend to slide back into the river.