brass protection

[mikevye]

Friends of ours had a new boat four years ago and the boatbuilder applied something to the brass dome air vents and they've not touched them since and they look like new. Any ideas as to what would preserve them this long? With the winters we are having I think varnish would last five minutes and be more trouble than its worth but I'm ready to be wrong.

[Daio]

By coincidence I came across an old tin of Incralac in the garage yesterday. Used it on our previous boat and it worked well. Chrome mushrooms now!

[Evo]

I need to know this...!!! I'm not a boat polishing, cleaning person. In fact, I was thinking of getting rid of all the brass, it looks horendous if left for even a few days. Stainless steel would be great but I cant get everything in stainless and dont want any form of plated steel anywhere, would rather have tarnished brass than iron oxide.

 

Rylard is something the father-in-law was obsessed with, but I dont know how long it lasts. I know one thing though, its taken me ages to get the crap off, its like 50 year old varnish residue, and the brass looked worse than if nothing had been put on it.

[Kez]

Standard car laquer from Halfords works well. And if you decide you want to take it off again, nitromors

[Machpoint005]

Brass protection? What about paint?

 

 

 

(no, the memsahib won't let me paint our mushrooms)

[WotEver]

The last time this topic came up I think it was decided that for a really hard, smooth, long-lasting finish the best solution is to get them stove lacquered by a stove-enamelling outfit.

 

Other solutions (like Incralac) may be good, but a stoved finish is harder.

 

At least I think that was the concensus because it's been in the back of my mind to get our vents and portholes stoved ever since - just not got around to it.

 

Tony

[Bobbybass]

I used ordinary laquer..which has lasted several years....but I do wax polish it occasionally to stop it 'drying out'..and going flakey.

Keeps it flexible.

 

Bob

[dor]

Incralac is the usual recommendation - I've just tried it on one mushroom to see how it compares. On my last boat I had to fit a couple of new mushrooms and used a gold-plated mushroom. The plating was atoms thick - sneeze on it and it would go, but it stayed like new for many years.

[Speedwheel]

Brass protection? What about paint?

 

Gets my vote

[DHutch]

We're incralac for the tops of ours, bases painted/tarnished.

- You can get gold plate, but its fragile and cannot be repaired.

 

 

 

Daniel

[ditchcrawler]

By coincidence I came across an old tin of Incralac in the garage yesterday. Used it on our previous boat and it worked well. Chrome mushrooms now!

I did my portholes 8 years ago and apart from where they have been scratched they still look good

[mikevye]

Incralac it is then, suppliers please? don't tell me its swindlers isn't it!!

[Grace and Favour]

I've used a clear cellulose top-coat from a car finishers before now - and it's worked rather well . . . . .

[BlueStringPudding]

Brass protection? What about paint?

 

 

 

(no, the memsahib won't let me paint our mushrooms)

 

 

When boathunting a few years ago we looked over a boat that had painted mushrooms - it was a black boat and the mushrooms were painted white, with wiggly tadpole tails coming from them on the roof. They were painted to look like sperms!