September 10, 2017
Yesterday, during a very rainy 20 mile boat ride, we decided to do something about the heartbreaking condition of the stainless on our new bimini (installed a couple of years ago in Australia and it was oh so shinny). It had rusted badly, probably due to the acid from the vog (volcano fog) here in Vanuatu.
I’ve been working on the problem with thinking. I thought about how I would keep the polish off of the canvas – maybe insert plastic between the stainless and the canvas… maybe remove the canvas – ouch, maybe… None of these options were appealing. On a hunch yesterday, I tried Bar Keepers Friend.
Cyndi uses it on what little shinny stainless we have left in the galley and it works great. Though it looks like a scrubby cleanser, it doesn’t scratch stainless and leaves it with a mirror finish. I put some on a wet terry cloth rag for a little test and to my amazement, the rust wiped right off. A little on a cleaning toothbrush and the welds were rust-free. Even areas with some pitting cleaned up with incredible ease. I put some on a small corner of the canvas, rinsed it and there was no residue or stain. Amazing!
Inspired, I did the whole bimini. It only took about 15 minutes and it really shines now. I wish I had a before picture but trust me, it was bad. Here’s the after…
Update:
Here’s a quick video (not quite in real-time) of me polishing our badly rusted stainless steel chartplotter mount.
