Marine 31 Stainless Steel and Aluminum Brightening Soap - Review

**Angus** · 02-02-2015, 01:58 PM

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:

DO NOT USE ON PAINTED, ANODIZED OR CLEAR COATED SURFACES.
Rub a damp sponge across the soap until a thick lather is created
Polish the desired area until it has a mirror-finish.
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.