Marine 31 Stainless Steel and Aluminum Brightening Soap - Review

[Angus]

Over the summer, my brother in-law approached me about how to clean up his recently acquired bass boat. For a secondhand boat it seems to be in fine mechanical shape but the rest of it has seen better days. Thing is, I've never detailed a boat before but I really want to help him out and make it look great. Plus it was a chance to learn something new.

The subject:


Hull problem areas:









As you can see, there’s some heavy spots of oxidation occurring from… well I have no idea, the boat came this way. All I know is I want to fix it.

From doing some online research, it became immediately apparent I’d need to use a rotary polisher to achieve the best results in the shortest amount of time. Well I don’t have access to rotary polisher, nor was there a budget for one. I have polished small metal parts by hand, knew Marine 31 carried a metal polishing soap w/ anti-corrosive properties so I opted to see what could be done with a little elbow grease and determination.



From Marine31’s product page for Marine 31 Stainless Steel and Aluminum Brightening Soap:

“Marine 31 Stainless Steel & Aluminum Brightening Soap polishes and protects in one simple step! Consisting of silicate-free polishing clay and all-natural soap flakes, Marine 31 Stainless Steel & Aluminum Brightening Soap forgoes the nasty, caustic ingredients found in a conventional metal polish and relies on eco-friendly ingredients.”

There’s 2 important points in that paragraph to take note of – 1)M31 SSABS polishes and protects and 2) it eco-friendly.

If I’m going to do this by hand, I want to make sure it last as long as possible and I also don’t want to be poisoning any future bass dinners!

Directions:

1. DO NOT USE ON PAINTED, ANODIZED OR CLEAR COATED SURFACES.
2. Rub a damp sponge across the soap until a thick lather is created
3. Polish the desired area until it has a mirror-finish.
4. Rinse residue and allow sponge and soap to air dry before storing.

Ok time for a test spot. Will this work? Is it worth it? I pick a rough area to test and after a little scrubbing I’m very happy with the results as shown in this 50/50 shot:







Armed with a sponge each, we get to work and scrub and scrub and scrub… an hour or two later the starboard side is looking great! We’ve knocked out 85% of the oxidation and restored a nice low gloss shine:







After quickly rinsing off any remaining polishing soap, a layer of Marine 31 Stainless Steel Liquid Sealant is applied:





Post application:



Yeah, think I’ll toss that one out.

As this experience proves, if you have an aluminum hull boat and want to clean it up but don’t have access or the budget for a rotary polisher – you can still get very good results by hand with Marine 31 Stainless Steel and Aluminum Brightening Soap.

A few months and a bunch of fishing trips after the above photo were taken, the hull still looks good:







In the spring we’re planning on attacking the port side, using a DA with course foam pads in an effort to cut down on time and product used. I’ll be sure to provide an update to this tread with our results.

Thanks for reading! I Hope you liked this review, please feel free to ask any questions.

[builthatch]

nice dude. yeah a DA will be the ticket. night and day difference in effort, i'm sure.

[Angus]

nice dude. yeah a DA will be the ticket. night and day difference in effort, i'm sure.

Thanks man!

Oh for sure, going by hand was time consuming but safer since neither one of us had ever polished a hull before. I'm confident we'll bang out the rest of the hull in 1/2 the time with considerably less effort by using a DA. If only I had a rotary - that sucker would be done super fast!!!

[blown03]

Nice work ! I think I'm ready to start some bare billet Aluminum Rims , 2 piece CCW's . Hopefully I'll have success my first go around like you did .

[Angus]

Nice work ! I think I'm ready to start some bare billet Aluminum Rims , 2 piece CCW's . Hopefully I'll have success my first go around like you did .

Thank you, Sir! Good luck on your rims!! I'm sure they'll turn out great. Any of the metal polishing soaps like S100 or P21S are dead simple to use and lead to great results. Whats nice about M31's metal soap is the added anti-corrosion properties for wet environments neither S100 or P21S versions contain.

[FUNX650]

Whats nice about M31's metal soap is the added anti-corrosion properties for wet environments neither S100 or P21S versions contain.

But can M31 be used to safely clean tennis shoes?


Bob

[Angus]

But can M31 be used to safely clean tennis shoes?


Bob

Ha! I'm not sure!! Maybe???

[EVOlved]

Seems a lot like P21s polishing soap. I know it doesn't state anything about protection but I know after I used it on my fridge it beads water like my car after a fresh sealant.

[Pats300zx]

That combo is killer on stainless steel sinks. I did my recently with the M31 stainless steel cleaner and sealant. Looked amazing.

[blown03]

Here's a shot of the first CCW rim ,I should add they came this way on my buds new to him 03 Cobra Coupe , 6K miles on them , crazy huh . I used P21s MPS followed by medium clay then Flitz ball w/ OPT Metal Polish and DeWalt VSR 2500RPM Drill . My first choice in Drills was Milwaukee but , couldn't find it locally . I think you can see the 50/50. I apologize , don't mean to Hijack your thread bro . Just thought I'd share these other products with yah ... I'm going to do the other half today ,then take it outside in natural light and have a looksy , working all the bugs out on this one then attack the other 3 , that's the plan anyway . I feel like I need the BF Wool buffing ball for perfection as it sits now but we'll see. Having 2 four foot fluorescents about 3' above my work area ,what I'm seeing still there may not show outside in natural light ? I'll see soon enough . Not looking foreword to those honeycombs lol