I've searched the forums with no answers. I want to remove the paint on my 14ft aluminum boat but instead of repainting it I was thinking of just polishing the aluminum to get the look I want. Any suggestions on how to go about this or have done it themselves?
I'm getting ready to do mine, but I'm going to polish the outside and paint the inside, from what I can tell, it looks like the easiest way to get the paint off is with easy off oven cleaner, I'll know with in a few days how it goes with mine, I've heard rumor that the oven cleaner might darken the aluminum, but then again I've also heard that it can be polished out, so, time will tell?
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The long and short of it is what you are planning is a lot of work. That is not necessarily a bad thing if you achieve the results you are looking for but once you have polished out aluminum you will have to work to keep it in a polished state. Bare aluminum naturally oxidizes to create a protective coating and once you have polished it out you will have to put forth effort to keep it that way. Once polished, clear coat paints on a polished surface do not hold up will in the marine environment.
I suggest removing paint with a gel type paint stripper. I have heard that oven cleaner will work but I have never used it to remove paint. If your boat has a factory finish the primer underneath may be very difficult to remove. If your boat started our bare aluminum and was painted by the owner it may come off easy. Depending on the quality and thickness of paint it may take several coats of stripper. For the stubbern stuff use a brass wire brush. Take care not to put any deep scratches in the aluminum.
Prepping the aluminum for polish I tried both oven cleaner and air conditioner coil cleaner. They did well but I ultimatly settled on commercial hull cleaner and my pressure washer.
Polishing aluminum takes time and is dirty and is best done with mechanical buffer. If your surface is scratched and dented polishing will illustrate the defects. I have done a portion of my 15 footer and I found two products that work very well. One is Mothers aluminum wheel and mag polish and the other is Nuvite. Do a web search on Nuvite and it will tell you everything you want to know about Nuvite. Nuvite is kind of pricey but you don't need much to do a lot. A small amount of Mothers goes a long way too. Mothers is available in most chain auto parts stores. Nuvite must be bought online as I have never seen it in stores.
Do a web search on Feather Craft boats and Classic Aluminum Boats to get an idea of the end products. There are a couple of 1950's Feather Craft Vagabonds that look great.
Removing paint from aluminum and polishing?
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