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Joined: 13/09/2010 Posts: 9
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Dear fellows, I need some advice about how to clean, polish and maintain the engine room plates? I appreciated any comment, thanks.
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Joined: 14/01/2009 Posts: 1024
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If the plates are oxidized it means you have salt water leaks in the engine room. Fix the leaks. Difficult to do anything with oxidized plate. Cheapest to grab a circular saw, several sheets of plate and cut new ones. Alternatively, if you are in the shipyard, you can sandblast the floor plates, prime and spray Awlgrip silver. Awl grip silver plates are very long lasting. Always screw the plates to a sheet of ply before blasting or they will deform.
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Joined: 22/04/2010 Posts: 45
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I guess it depends on the finished required in the engineroom one boat that I worked one we just cleaned them, scratched them with a sander using some disc's that look like the pads you clean the deck with and sprayed them with a couple of cans of Hammarite metal spray paint. It isn't the perfect finish by it's super cheap and easy for one of the deck crew or a dayworker to do.
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Welder's pickling paste, brush it on and then hose it off. Roll a coat of grey Hammerite if they are not polished stainless.
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Joined: 19/06/2008 Posts: 6
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lightly sand blast and powder coat them. then just wash with soap when needed.
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Joined: 09/09/2008 Posts: 78
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sandblast and then awl grip. thats what we did. Don't do this if you plan on throwing crap around. As others stated if you sandblast, be careful, you can warp the plates, by being heavy handed. I do not recommend powder coating due to the difficulty to repair.
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Joined: 25/06/2009 Posts: 277
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A 4 x 8 foot sheet of 3/16 inch polished aluminum seems to cost about $300. At what point does it become more economical (and less effort), to cut and drill new plates (or even order new pre-cut plates)? Rod
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Joined: 01/06/2008 Posts: 1061
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junior wrote:If the plates are oxidized it means you have salt water leaks in the engine room. Fix the leaks. Difficult to do anything with oxidized plate. Cheapest to grab a circular saw, several sheets of plate and cut new ones. Alternatively, if you are in the shipyard, you can sandblast the floor plates, prime and spray Awlgrip silver. Awl grip silver plates are very long lasting. Always screw the plates to a sheet of ply before blasting or they will deform.
No, Aluminium will form a protective coat of oxidation about 2 seconds after you scratch it off in clean pure dry air. Corrosion indicates caustic contamination.
My favorite thing to do with deck plates is take them to the Rhino Liner guy and have them sprayed with that, it's pretty bullet proof. I use it as deck paint on steel work boats and it holds up great.
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Joined: 13/09/2010 Posts: 9
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Thanks to all of your advices. Wish you all the best.
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