Rust on Swim Platform railing screws

[dmecimore]

Hello tugnuts.

I have what seems like excessive rust on the screws that attach the railing to my swim platform. I put a pic in my Album (not sure how to make it part of this post).

Is this normal? (boat is in salt water in a wet slip) Am I missing some basic maintenance on this?

Boat has been in the water about six months.

Thanks!

 

[Scuba Too]

Is this a new boat? I ran into similar rust in various places on my boat when it was new back in 2017. It's probably just some surface contaminants and iron oxides. I used Collinite Metal Wax 850 and it did a great job cleaning it up and providing protection. I try to polish the bright work annually but after the initial polish it's been much less of an issue.

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/collinit ... ecordNum=1

 

[Brian B]

The screws will bleed as they are a poorer grade of stainless. I like Collonite Metal Wax 850. Work it in around the screws with a tooth brush. I use a cotton glove to apply and remove it to all the SS rails, makes the job go fairly quickly and the SS will look great.

 

[TwoFootitis]

Hello Brian,

I found this on the internet: https://home.howstuffworks.com/home-imp ... -steel.htm. I have the same problem and will give this a try and report back.

Good luck!

 

[Bart Keil]

How about the rust staining on the adjoining fiberglass?

 

[scross]

I use this:
https://diamondmagic.com/
Not too expensive and does a fantastic job on cleaning stainless rails. I use it with a stiff toothbrush to clean off the rust stains on the fiberglass and on screw heads. Won’t get 100% of the rust off a screw head but they sure look better after cleaning.

 

[Chimo]

How about the rust staining on the adjoining fiberglass?

I use FSR. It’s like a blue gel in a small pot. Stands for Fiberglass Stain Remover. It also seems to work on the stainless screws on the platform. I make sure to rinse my wife’s toothbrush after using.

 

[dmecimore]

I make sure to rinse my wife’s toothbrush after using.

I'll look for the FSR. Second part of your advice I better ignore. 😀

 

[fishheadbarandgrill]

+1 for FSR

 

[Gin]

Try a magic eraser. That’s what the factory guys used when I noticed some rust on the fiberglass railing screws after taking delivery. Worked great.

 

[BB marine]

Fresh water rinse all the time will help control it. Use a lot of wax and rinse. The quality of fasteners used is poor and many are not sealed well. I find most of the rust bleeding comes from under the fender washers because of lack of sealant and water is penetrating under the washers and rusting. Our boat has been used primarily in fresh water and I have seen little rust. After a month in salt water. (rinsed everyday after cruising) the fender washers are bleeding rust. I removed a couple to find out why and discovered no sealant used at all on the three that I removed. I gave up on this for now and after the trip I will re-bed all the fasteners on the swim platform, ladders, rails and all other places I find rust bleeding. I find that Fluid motion may need to provide a class to the assembly line technicians (101 sealing fasteners and components to fiberglass). There is an art to it but easily done.

 

[SLyle01]

One way to financial security: always comparison shop -and find deals:
FYI: "Collinite 850" is good stuff, but can be priced as high as $27 (West) but sells for much less elsewhere: Wal-Mart $17, Amazon $14 and...on eBay $12 delivered.

 

[SkookumR29]

Something that needs to be understood and remembered when dealing with this problem.....

Stainless steel is very resistant to corrosion in both fresh and salt water environments because when it is exposed to an ample supply of oxygen, it develops a natural oxide layer and is then referred to as "passivated". But, when the surface of the stainless steel is deprived of oxygen, it becomes "active" and makes it very vulnerable to corrosion - the oxide layer doesn't have a chance to form. This is very common where fasteners and railings penetrate the boat deck surface and even where moisture is trapped under fender washers and the like. The same happens to underwater stainless where again, it does not get a good supply of oxygen - but to a lesser degree.

BB is correct in that the key to minimizing the problem is good bedding and sealing. You can clean all you want, but until you solve other issues, the stains will just keep coming back. I recently removed all of our swim step railings and Weaver davits, cleaned everything up and re-bedded/sealed everything when I reassembled. I anticipate that things will look good for a few years, but inevitably I'll be doing it again. Some of the old thru-bolts showed definite signs of corrosion where they passed through the swim step structure.