Surface rust on stainless steel

coast2coast · #1

The stainless steel railings and radar arch on my Kingfisher are showing some surface rust from the salt exposure here. It easily wipes right off with a towel and looks fine underneath, but I have a couple of questions. First, should this be happening at all? Second, what's the best way to clean it and prevent it from coming back? I thought about Sharkhide, but at over $70.00 for a quart shipped to me it seems expensive, and I shouldn't need anything near a quart. What about just using something like automotive wax? Of course I'm trying to get away from frequent waxing, etc. - part of the reason for the move to alloy in the first place.

#2

Morning John,
That is not good. There are two main grades of SS used for marine fabrication, 316 & 304. 316 is the higher quality & is rated for constant saltwater immersion. Prop shafts are nearly always 316. 304 is often used for rails, rod tubes, etc but 316 can also be found here.
The amount of rust shown on your fittings seems to indicate use of a lower grade SS. It is not acceptable on a boat which is designed for salt water use.
Metal polish will clean it up & give some ongoing protection but I would suggest a call to the fabricator of the SS fittings to determine what he is going to do about the problem.

#3

Just take some FLITZ, I'll bet the fabricator is no where to be found???
I've used it and it works well as well as keeping the metal protected from reocurring if you just wipe it down once and a while with a recoat.
A little elbow grease and two hours, you'll thinks she is new. Good luck, Marty
Clean it with this:

THen use this afterwards:

You can buy it at his website:

http://www.flitz-polish.com/?source=gg& ... HgodbDuzMg

http://www.youtube.com/user/BLM26CC · #4

C2C....Hmmmm, man I wouldn't be all that happy either.

Possibly all that should have been aluminum, instead.

Hell with the fabricator, if that came on the boat, call the builder of the boat!

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Marty, that photo keeps freakin me out!
How the heck does one have time to eat a bag of chips, when trolling that many lines off one boat

:roll: :roll: :roll:
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#5

I never noticed they put a SS arch on your boat, WHY did they do that ?

Check to see how it is attached to the Aluminum, there needs to be a barrier between the two metals.

That SS looks typical of what comes from china [ Read , low grade SS ]

Call your manufacture and ask , like the Gentalman you are, why your arch is doing that . Let them Know you can send a picture of it.

coast2coast · #6

All of the railings and the arch are stainless. There is some sort of plastic gasket between the bases of the fittings and the boat. It's about 1/8" thick, so they seem to be well isolated. Also, the whole boat was Zolatoned before any fittings were applied. You can see the connection here:

Note these pictures were BEFORE I cleaned the arch, as I said it wiped right off and looks perfect after it has been wiped down. I am going to send pictures to the dealer and builder to see what they have to say about it.