Non-Skid Polishing

mattie

Pouring rain here today. Went to the boat shed to see if polishing non-skid actually works.

Bought a Shurhold 6.5" soft polishing brush.
Hooked it up to DA polisher & used Shurhold Pro-Polish.
Worked amazingly well. Really easy to use. Brush did all the work. Hardly any effort.
Not slippery at all when done. 

Literally, looks brand new. Really worked well around the windlass switches & such up at the bow.
Definitely recommend if you are a fastidious peep...
I use Starbrite Deck Cleaner almost every time we're out on the boat. But, this result is def one notch above that.

SimcoeRinker400

Interesting never thought you could polish the non-skid it would be nice.  Do you have any before and after pictures??

mattie

Didn’t take any before pics. The polish got rid of the dingy white. Really noticeable on the front deck at the windlass.

Shurhold video
https://youtu.be/8bev7snuRRY

SimcoeRinker400

Cool video I may do this.. I have lots area to do.  

Aqua_Aura

@mattie I am gonna order this and I see you bought the soft brush. Was that good or do you think the medium might be better? I don't have deep cleaning to do just polishing however I was gonna let a friend use it when I'm done and he does have some more staining on his. 

Also I'm not sure how or if I can even attach it to my polisher. I have a large one I bought from harbor freight years ago and I think it is not threaded like this. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Ian

I see this works well for molded non-skid like my buddy has on his bayliner; min is the finer non skid that is like a grit embedded into a top coat. Is this likely to scrape/scuff of the gritty surface?

rasbury

I used my polisher with like an 8" or so stiff brush....I used the 3M combo compound and polish....it worked real well also. I like the deck cleaner but that does strip everything off on the deck and as it runs down the sides...but mine needs a whole "do" as it has sat for 8 months...so I will start with the deck cleaner. I did it on the swim platform also but just could not get it clean to my satisfaction so will hit that with the deck cleaner to experiment. I hope to bring my boat home this up coming weekend to get ready for boating in the fall!

mattie

Aqua_Aura said:

@mattie I am gonna order this and I see you bought the soft brush. Was that good or do you think the medium might be better? I don't have deep cleaning to do just polishing however I was gonna let a friend use it when I'm done and he does have some more staining on his. 

Also I'm not sure how or if I can even attach it to my polisher. I have a large one I bought from harbor freight years ago and I think it is not threaded like this. 🤷🏽‍♂️

@Aqua_Aura

Order soft brush for sure. Medium would be too harsh.
Unfortunately, I'm thinking you may need a DA (dual action) style polisher to attach the brush. 
There are adapters available in order to match up the threaded brush mount. Or buy a Harbor Freight DA polisher - cheap.

I had a older Maguiars DA from my hot rod days....

mattie

Ian said:

I see this works well for molded non-skid like my buddy has on his bayliner; min is the finer non skid that is like a grit embedded into a top coat. Is this likely to scrape/scuff of the gritty surface?

@Ian
Our boat has both surfaces. A grit type surface on the swimdeck & the more traditional molded surface on the foredeck.
The soft brush didn't do any damage at all to the grit surface.

Overall, I'm very happy with the result. What made me look into it was - after buffing the hull sides my wool pad crept into the grit surface swimdeck & it looked way better with the accidental buffing. 

The result is awesome. Doesn't require much force on the polisher. Just pretty much let the weight of the machine do the work.

Side benefit the brush works really well around the cleats, etc. Good detailing tool.