Posted by Joe Bauer on 07/31/09 - 4:38 PM
#1
Hello All,
In the process of restoring my 1987 Outrage 22, I was about to give up on the original Marinium cleats due to fairly meaningful surface oxidation. After all the effort to be spent on the teak and new stainless steel rod holders, the thought of placing these dull and noticeably oxidized cleats back on the boat was not in the equation; I even gave s.s. cleats a thought. After trying to polish the original cleats by hand, I realized I needed help. A friend of mine is a metal fabricator in our small Maryland community, so I went to him. Within minutes he was able to bring one of the cleats back to new condition - actually gleaming like chrome. The trick is to use a soft cotton polishing wheel on a stationary bench mounted commercial buffer found in most metal shops with a combination of rouges that remove the oxidation without damaging the metal. Given the success I had with this process I would urge anyone trying to bring back the luster of their Marinium cleats to find a good metal shop to polish the pieces. From a maintenance perspective, I would recommend a good automobile billet wheel polish on a regular basis. To the best of my knowledge, these cleats are not protected by an anodizing process so the re-oxidizing reaction should not be an issue given appropriate attention.
Hope this helps with other's restoration efforts.
With kind regards,
Joe Bauer
Posted by Jeff on 07/31/09 - 5:53 PM
#2
Like
this? I did the same thing with my marinium parts off my 22 Outrage. The looked great at first but required constant up keep by hand. I pulled them all off and redid them every two years. The best thing to do would be to have them chromed. Though the original marinium finish was a semi chrome look. Not shinny chrome nor, a brushed look but, in between. I believe, and could be wrong but, the marinium parts were just anodized aluminum.
Edited by Jeff on 07/31/09 - 5:54 PM
Posted by Tom W Clark on 08/02/09 - 9:26 AM
#3
I believe the Wilcox-Crittenden Marinium hardware that Whaler used was clear anodized.
Polishing it will make it much shinier that it ever was originally. It looks gretat when polished but, of course, the challenge to is to maintain the polished surface.