I have a mess on my hands.

Slimcobra

Member
Aug 14, 2017
102
Gulf Breeze, FL
Boat Info
2000 Sea Ray 210 SunDeck
Engines
Mercruiser 5.0 w/ Alpha 1 Gen 2
I took the cover off my boat for hurricane Irma and have been so busy I kept forgetting to put it back on. I got up in it last night to look and something and found that there was a bunch of leaves in the boat and they stopped up the drain so there is a couple of inches of water sitting in it. Plus there is mold all over the seat now. It's gonna take a full day of detailing to get it cleaned up. AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
 
Ouch.... That Floridian humidity is no friend to boat vinyl
 
Oh man, sympathies. Mold, rrrrrr!

On the other hand, there are stories of owners who can only dream of such little damage so,

Maybe make the best of it and take a bunch of CD’s full of music that’ll make the day “go quicker”???
 
I think I'm gonna wait just a few more weeks and then spend the entire weekend buffing the entire haul and then doing a complete interior detail. We are finally getting some days in the mid 80's and I would prefer to do it when it's just a few degrees cooler. I bought the first weekend of Aug. and I can still see the registration numbers from the previous owner. What do you guys recommend using to trying to buff it out with?
 
This year after patching up a couple of dings, I used some 3M Finesse It polish. I was extremely impressed and brought a mirror shine.
Afterward, don't forget to put a coat of wax on it. There is no wax in the 3M product.
 
I took the cover off my boat for hurricane Irma and have been so busy I kept forgetting to put it back on. I got up in it last night to look and something and found that there was a bunch of leaves in the boat and they stopped up the drain so there is a couple of inches of water sitting in it. Plus there is mold all over the seat now. It's gonna take a full day of detailing to get it cleaned up. AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
AHHHHHH? That is more a sound of relief. Perhaps you meant ARRRRGGGHHHH!!!? ;)

Regardless, hope you get it cleaned up quickly!


 
Got you beat- Bought 27'DA. sailed across the bay. 2 days later Bendix would not engage starter , Old hammer trick didn't work. Storm came up and beat it against the pilings. Next day w/rope pulled it to lift. By hand at 73 it wasn't square but it was out harm? It was racked so cabin door would not close, so what. sent canvas to be repaired. An owl said this is a great place to raise a brood. Put only half of the repaired top on but didn't want to hurt them. Another Chesapeake wind storm came and ripped the top apart again. Birds grew and left. I now have a non starting boat, destroyed canvas with a cabin FULL of BONES & Guano. These were BIG owls.
 
I have to post this. I have been trying several things to get the mold/mildew off my seats. I tried Simple Green, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, Oxiclean, Bar Keepers Friend, etc... Nothing was getting it. I used bleach on areas that didn't have stitching on it and then hosed it down well after and that seemed to be the only thing that was getting the majority of it. Then I tried the Starbrite Mildew Stain Remover. OMG why didn't I start with this? I sprayed it on and let it sit. After 5 minutes or less of sitting in most cases I could just wipe it off. I some spots I hit it with a brush, but when done it looked great!
 
I have to post this. ... Then I tried the Starbrite Mildew Stain Remover ... it looked great!

^^^This^^^ is the kind of info- (and knowledge- / experience-) sharing that make this forum so awesome!

Slim, your sharing this info is gonna make my Admirals life a LOT more pleasant and I don’t imagine I have to tell you how that is gonna affect MY life , ha-ha! :)

thank ye, Thank Ye, THANK YE!

So, in addition to “Home Armor EZ House Wash” (pic attached and which another CSR member posted on and we’ve had neighbors confirm is “the bomb” on mold stains!) it appears we now have TWO OPTIONS for effective removal of mold and the stains it leaves behind.
Gotta LOVE this info sharing!!!
 

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As another suggestion, you might also want to try Marine 31.
 
One thing to keep in mind guys is that most mold/mildew products that work well have... bleach in them. I'm not saying don't use them - I use them, and diluted bleach all the time. Just mentioning that so you don't think they're safe on the stitching - Slim, I noticed you said you purposefully avoided the stitching.

As far as how each product works, a side by side test would be interesting. Using one product, then another on the same spot is not valid as the first one could have "softened" the mold (for lack of a better term). However, using two or three products on the same surface, but sectioning the surface to avoid overlap would be completely vaild.
 
Valid point re: bleach in effective products; therefore; for the good of the order (and lifespan of stitches) see links to MSDS for each of the respective products.

Where you see “Sodium hypochlorite,” well, that IS bleach ...
Sodium hypochlorite is a strong oxidizing agent in liquid form and is greenish or yellowish in color. It is commonly referred to as bleach because it is the active ingredient in bleach. Its chemical formula is NaClO, composed of one sodium (Na) atom, one chlorine (Cl) atom and one oxygen (O) atom.” ( https://study.com/academy/lesson/sodium-hypochlorite-structure-uses-formula.html )

https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/pdfs/MSDS/Starbrite/STA_85616_MSDS.pdf

http://www.homearmor.com/uploads/products/FG511 FG514 MA MSDS.pdf

http://www.attwoodmarine.com/userfi...-s-a-85616--msds--2---07-11-08---09-08-08.doc

Interestingly enough, Star-brite company actually appears as the principal listed at the bottom of the MSDS for the Atwood (Marine 31) product. Go figger ... ;-)

What the Admiral and I typically do - in addition to avoiding excess of any cleaner on or in stitching crevices - is keep a spray bottle of clear water and some dry rags handy and in order to remove any residual cleaning product after it has done its own job on the mildew or stains. If we’re doing a large area we will rinse the “rinse rags” in a bucket of clean water, once they have a lot of cleaning solutions absorbed into them.

All this OCD started after we saw friends liberally apply mildew and stain-remover on their upholstery one morning before launching , and without going behind it with anything. The residual product (probably had bleach in it) did some neat stuff to their upholstery wherever it was exposed to the full sun UV rays, all day, later that day ... (yellowed and cracked prematurely vs the ares under their canopy, etc.)
 
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Don't wait to long and let the mold get into the foam. You will really be fussy if that occurs.
 
IMO if straight bleach will not remove the mold stains then nothing will.....I have had very good success using a WHITE rag lightly soaked in straight bleach and lying the rag directly on the stain leaving it to work for 10-15 mins or whatever time it takes....if the rag dries out I would re-soak it with bleach....this works very well since it keeps a concentrated solution of cleaner in direct contact with the stain for a prolong period of time and it keeps the bleach from getting on the stitching...

then clean the vinyl with clear water and a basic cleaner such as Windex and follow-up with a vinyl protectant such as Aerospace 303....

cliff
 
Just be very very careful with the use of bleach. Unless there is no alternative I would never recommend bleach on vinyl as it will damage the platicizers in vinyl drying it out. When the plasticizers lose their effectiveness you will get cracking in the outer vinyl. I also do not recommend the magic erasers as they also deteriorate the vinyl as they work like a very fine sandpaper removing the outer layers of the vinyl coating.

So, always start with the least aggressive and work up.

-Kevin
 
Just be very very careful with the use of bleach. Unless there is no alternative I would never recommend bleach on vinyl as it will damage the platicizers in vinyl drying it out. When the plasticizers lose their effectiveness you will get cracking in the outer vinyl. I also do not recommend the magic erasers as they also deteriorate the vinyl as they work like a very fine sandpaper removing the outer layers of the vinyl coating.

So, always start with the least aggressive and work up.

-Kevin

agree 110%.....only use bleach as a last resort....

cliff
 
Wow, I didn't know that about the Magic Erasers, great tip. Almost everything you read or videos show using one.
 

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