[Sentoa] Bronze Hardware

[Mike Arnold]

I agree, once you polish the brass, in order to keep the "Bristol Shine" it can be a bi-weekly job. I polish ours for special events, when "dress ship"is called for by the Admiral. It takes the over all  presentation of the vessel  up a couple notches.  The polished finish does not hold dirt as well and the metal looks healthier than brass that never gets a polish.
 
Brass is a soft metal and does clean up easy. I use  http://www.flitz-polish.com/Flitz-Polishes  with thier polish ball ($27.00) that goes on a cordless drill to get the tight areas. If you want a true mirror polish, finish up with 1200 to 1600 grit wet/ dry sand paper.  (Use with running water works best for me). 
When the tug is clean and polished it just seems to run better. That being said, our brass has not been polished in over a year...maybe next week?
 
Mike Arnold 
"Chilula" 26103
3659 Sourwood Trail
Cleveland, TN 37312



----- Original Message ----
From: "jag at vcn.bc.ca" <jag at vcn.bc.ca>
To: South East Nordic Tugs Owners' Association (SENTOA) <sentoa at lists.samurai.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 2, 2008 1:38:16 AM
Subject: Re: [Sentoa] Bronze Hardware

Hi

I believe I have heard of the bronze cleats being chrome plated by some. I
have had the stbd fwd and the aft port off for rebedding - not an easy job
mostly because of difficult access. I believe for the fwd one I had to use
a "crowfoot" wrench OR?? to get one of the nuts off. On the aft one I had
to break one of the bolts because the threads were mashed or it was bent -
something like that. I have a muffler in the lazarette, stbd side, to get
at that cleat is impossible for me without removing the muffler and I'm
not sure how possible that would be.

The hardware on the salon door and hatch hinges - I cleaned them up -
sandpaper mostly and then varnished and they have remained "respectable".
A clear coat spray would probably be a better choice.

A present project of mine is to get rid of some of the non-skid (almond
shells ?) on the places it is not required i.e. around the cockpit gunnel
and at the pointy end under the rails. I am sanding it off and rolling on
Toplac (foam roller). I have done the fwd end and it is a pretty good
match. The reason I am doing this is that it always looks so dirty (black
shells ?) and it really holds the dirt. The same goes for the non-skid on
the upper decks but I don't know if I have the ***** do try to improve on
it.

John Gallagher
RADIANT
32-068
Vancouver, B.C


> Hello all,
>
> We're in the process of restoring our 1988 NT32 and we're wondering what
> the
> list thinks about cleaning bronze fittings and hardware - or not.
> Currently, everything has a green patina.  Some folks bead blast it, some
> use muratic acid, some buff it, some leave it alone.  What do you all
> think?
>
> Norm Lehmer
> Toot Sweet 32-021
> Everett, WA / Republic, WA
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sentoa mailing list
> Sentoa at lists.samurai.com
> http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/sentoa
>
>
> !DSPAM:448,4893432e227565724881340!
>


_______________________________________________
Sentoa mailing list
Sentoa at lists.samurai.com
http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/sentoa
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.samurai.com/pipermail/sentoa/attachments/20080802/dbdff1ea/attachment.html