Acid wash question

[goodoldwoody]

Hi All,

Im making the transition from wood to fibreglass.
Last year we bought a fibreglass boat we had the topsides polished professionally, they did a good job.
Now its time to antifoul and the boatyard always does a mild acid wash on the topsides.
Will the acid wash ruin the polish?
Thanks
Woody

[chrisr]

basically yes...the acid will remove any residual wax

but if the polish was done last year there's unlikely to be any left anyway

we usually get the topsides polished every slip (say 18 - 24 months), but are using acid wash on the waterline very frequently in between to remove river staining

Oxalic Acid is the stuff and you can get it (or products using it as the active ingredient) at any hardware store (bunnings have diggers stain & rust remover which is fabulous !)

cheers,

[HankOnthewater]

Another ozzie reply.
Yes, the acid will strip any wax. Hehehe, even when there are few or no stains, it is a good product to use before applying wax again.

I have used oxalic acid for many years to remove stains from fibreglass and SS. But there are other products in Oz: StarBrite, CLR, Chemtech, and I think Rainex makes a product as well.
But oxalic acid is a factor 10 to 100 times cheaper. It is a white powder that mixed with water makes the cleaning solution. You can use sea water as well.
It is mainly sold in pool shops. Wearing gloves and goggles might be recommended.

Here are some other threads on this kind of stuff:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...id-216745.html
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...at-195020.html
there are more, just search for "oxalic"

[goodoldwoody]

Hi All
Thanks for the replies.
As its goes Ive been getting my work done by them, as I age, so I’ll ask only to do the acid wash to the bootstrap area.

Thanks
Woody.

[CarlF]

Oxalic acid (or products with it as an ingredient) will do nothing for stains from organic material in the water -- like you get on the US ICW - these are typically yellow/brown stains.

If you have any of this staining you have to get it off before waxing or the stains will show right through your beautiful and expensive wax job.

For that I use On & Off which is a mix of hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid and oxalic acid --works great but protect all skin and wear eye protection.

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by CarlF

Oxalic acid (or products with it as an ingredient) will do nothing for stains from organic material in the water -- like you get on the US ICW - these are typically yellow/brown stains.

If you have any of this staining you have to get it off before waxing or the stains will show right through your beautiful and expensive wax job.

For that I use On & Off which is a mix of hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid and oxalic acid --works great but protect all skin and wear eye protection.

beg to differ

perhaps the brown river stain we get here is a different composition, but oxalic acid removes it faster than you can operate the spay bottle. no rubbing...just spray it on and GONE

maybe the stain there has more chemicals in it ?

cheers,

[goodoldwoody]

We’re in the Lower Hawkesbury, Parsley Bay. We get a lot of algae from the river and a lot of other stuff “pollution” including fuel and chemicals which I suspect is dumped into the river at night. Its not unusual to arrive at the boat the day after only to see the waterline covered in oily stuff.
I get the work done at RPAYC and they sort of mop it on from a bucket. I’ve used oxalic acid before and found even a Very mild mix is effective.

Thanks
Woody.