Diesel exhaust cleanup

[FreeBird Sportfishing]

Run Startron in the fuel.... For the cleaning part.. Simple green and a rag work well.

THE most IMPORTANT thing to do is grab a soft deck brush and occasionally scrub down the transom in between drifts... or troll. You don't want the soot to dry up. Scrub it down once you enter your lagoon also.. DO NOT let that nasty stuff dry!

[reelaxin]

Thanks to all for the input - I'll give a couple of these things a try.

Before the purchase I had the motors / aftercoolers checked by Cat, filters are clean and motors turn up to spec. Props tuned tihs spring.

Boat is 10 years old so the gelcoat could be getting porus I guess. It seems to be worse when running in the waterway constantly coming up and down off plane due to boat traffic.

[Bonehead]

I had the same problem and finially Awlgriped the boat. The results are fantastic and the soot wipes right off. Really amazing. If your going to get to the point where you want to paint the transome, use the Awlgrip topcoat instead of the Awlcraft 2000. The topcoat is a polyester urethane while the Awlcraft is an acrylic urethane. The Polyester will ware better for that area. You can roll and tip the topcoat so you don't need a sprayer. It can be done yourself. Consider it for a future project.

[billschwabe]

I agree with bonehead, use a high quality topcoat, Alexseal ,"regular" Awl-Grip or Imron, all will do a great job. After you paint the transom and put on a new name, add a couple or three coats of clear over the whole thing. It will make blending it in and future patch jobs much easier plus protecting the vinyl lettering. Be absolutely sure you work with the guy who does the name and test samples with the chosen paint's solvent to ensure it doesn't cause the name's colors to run or there will be some heartbreak! We've tested several brands of the vinyls before finding ones impervious to the solvents and do it every time now just to be sure.

[brokensheer]

how about a clear tear off like used in NASCAR for windshields?,,, kind of funny but heck might just work,,,, mental patent applied for,,,

[billschwabe]

how about a clear tear off like used in NASCAR for windshields?,,, kind of funny but heck might just work,,,, mental patent applied for,,,

You may have something there Bo! Does you patent apply to only clear tear offs?
I was thinking you could have ones with different names on them, could come in handy for the next trip down the Intracoastal! "That wasn't me who rolled that snailboat officer, but a boat that looked just like mine went flying by me a short while ago too but it had a different name!"

[brokensheer]

Dang bill ,, we think alike!