Polishing the Portholes

I know the portholes on my R-21 are bronze. I have tried a few commerical solutions and even tried a home made solution with flour, lemon and vinager. All of these attempts have required LOTS of work. What is the best way to shine these babies and how do you keep them looking good for as long as possible.

Thanks

Mark

When Tugly was new I kept her ports polished and used Nevr-dull. Worked well but still took a lot of time and effort. I have come to really appreciate the nice weathered look of the patina.

Bill

If you shine them up and then tape them off and coat with laquer, it will keep them shiny for a while. Then the laquer will age in the sun, turn yellow, and peel off.

I think the best answer is to learn to appreciate the brown/green natural look. 😉

Agreed! We tried and tried for the 1st year to keep the portholes shiny. What a pain in the backside. Finally, we put a nice coat of wax after shining them and slowly they have aged. The wax has kept the green patina to a min, but they have "mellowed nicely". Good luck

Drew

Now this topic brings up, for me, a whole question of what kind of boating are we doing, when we purchase a Ranger Tug?? Certainly not some white fibreglas, post-modernistic, double V-8, zoom-zoom kind of cruiser, eh? One of the times I meditate on just why I have the boat, is when the brass portholes get to looking ugly, and I need to step in with, not only elbow grease and finger pressure, but patience and serenity. I would guess that those classicly brass portholes---not make-believe, not imitation, but the real brassy thing, with the wing nuts, round screens, and all---those portholes helped to sell us on THIS boat. Because it's authentic, and a Ranger is an authentic boat with a deep nautical flair, harking back to seamanship and workboats of the past century ( er, that would be the 20th).
I think the brass portholes are there, not only for nostalgia, if that's what it is, but to make us Slow Down and smell the roses, or, in this case, the Brasso. For that is what I use, an old rag and the Brasso I used to polish my uniform in the military, those brass buttons.
You can't get all the stains and flaws out; you're not supposed to, for they add character----but every now and then, you get a stretch of freshly cleaned porthole that shines and shimmers in the sun, and all is well with the world. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it

Bluebayou,
Your post brings up a favorite thought of mine, just what are we doing with these boats? Some time back I hit the forum with this question under a different topic and was hoping to stir a few responses about our uses. No response made me think that the majority of the Tugs were too far north to be enjoying out on the water. I thought maybe the site is heavy on working on the tugs and getting to the bottom of little problems and things that are not like we want them to be. How true we are not the zoom,zoom v-8 crowd but we cruise along at an enjoyable pace in a classic style that turns heads and get s 'thumbs up' all along. Here on the river I just glide along and watch the herons and gulls do their thing. They haedly notice me as I move up or down the river. Fishermen in their Bass boats look with envy as I am warm in the pilothouse and neighbors comment "how nice it will be as the sun gets out so they can go out on their pontoon boats. This is what we can enjoy with the putt of the diesel easing us along watching nature go by.
This weekend was trailer up the river 50 miles, put in, cruise downstream 30 miles, slep on the boat and continue the next 30 home. It was not bad then to drive the 50 back to get the truck and trailer. That is what we do with the boats.
Ron

Real brass portholes - I can't agree more with the previous posts. It was the little "big boat" touches that sold us on the Ranger Tug as well. Whether we are in our slip working on keeping her lookin' good,(polishing the portholes), or out cruising around, we can always count on being noticed. These little boats truly are "head turners" and if you are trying to remain innocuously under the radar, better get a different boat! But, even more to the point, it seems that for many of us at least, these little boats embody everything that we love about boating. How can a 21 ft. boat force us into a renewed respect for all of those seakeeping traditions we learned long ago, (and were at risk of forgetting). Our R-21 just makes us feel happy every time we see her. She's more than just a boat, and if we were ever to hit the big $$$ and decide we needed somthing bigger, we would never part with "Kamalani".

So you probably can guess that we choose to polish those brass portholes. And you're right, Brasso seems to beat all the rest. We cut out a circle the exact diameter of the port flange from a plastic dog place mat (of all things) and tape it in place to protect the surrounding gel coat. Then we crank up the volume on the stereo and get to work. OK, so maybe we do have too much time on our hands, but so far it's been worth it.

These posts did get me to thinking as well. We DO go slow and really enjoy " messing about with boats " I had let my portholes go to a weathered look but Sunday, it was blowing too hard to boat so me and a can of brasso got to work. 2 of my portholes are now nice and shiny and honestly there was a lot of satisfaction in doing it. i'll finish the other one soon. Thanks for the posts they definatley got me thinking as to why we chose and do love RT Tug.

Rich

I tried Brasso and never dull on my 29's portholes but found it to be very slow going. I had bought some Flitz metal polish at a boat show a few years back and decided to give it a try. It cut down to the shine in seconds...I was amazed. Going to try waxing them afterwards in hopes that the aging will be more uniform...instead of the streaks I had before.

Prisim Polish works the best. http://www.mppros.com/

I second Prism Polish followed with a coat of carnuba wax. It drives me crazy when the portholes lose their shine! In my former hobby, brass polishing was a full time occupation - so being able to have the portholes shine up quickly is a bonus!! I would rather spend my time tugging along enjoying the wildlife as Ron suggests rather than polishing metal!!

Moria
Tugger Toy

Flitz is good polish indeed. It is also gentle enough to remove stains from gelcoat. Mothers also makes a metal polish that works well on Harley wheels. For now I must confine my polishing to motorcycle and Sea Ray and continue to look forward to the day I get my own brass portholes. The dream lives!

I was so happy and relieved when my wife announced that she liked the "weathered" look. I've used Brasso in the Army, so I was more than willing to "keep mamma happy" by not breaking out the Brasso can. Think they'll ever make the port holes in "Sta-Brite"??? 😀

Keeping mamma happy,
John

Many years ago, I used a product called Twinkle where you wet the article to be cleaned with hot water, then apply the Twinkle wait for a few minutes then wash off with hot water and like magic the brass was clean . I cant purchase this product in Australia any more so I cant try on Here Be Dragons but wish I could as I work away with Brasso. After cleaning I seal with Shellac which is metholated spirits based and when the portholes need to be redone the Shellac comes off easy with straight Metho. I know you can get Twinke on Amazon but they wont freight to Australia .
Other than let the portholes oxidize naturally maybe one of you guys can try Twinkle and let the rest of the group know your sucess of otherwise ?

Shared Dream portholes are polished with love and flitz, then sealed with a metal sealer made by Meguires. The shine lasts for 3 months before they need to be worked again and there is no additional preparation required to remove the sealer. I have worked them into a rotation so that I am refreshing one porthole per month. Now that's a lot of love.

Dont think I can get Flitz in Australia either

Does it matter if Brasso or nevr dull get in contact with the gel coat while shining the porthole?

I used PEEK to clean the ports then covered with collinite 850 was

I love my chocolate colored portholes :mrgreen:

I just spent an hour cleaning a porthole, first time in 4 years, I use some paste made by Prism, I think that it works great! What a difference! 3 more to go... Remind me of my navy days!