Sharkhide Metal Protectant

I recently spent about 60 hrs cleaning and polishing my toons on my pontoon boat. I read and ordered this from Amazon but completed my polishing before it arrived. I did not want to put my boat in the water without some kind of protectant on it due to all the work I had done. I went to numerous stores before I found a product that was to protect aluminum. I applied it and went to the lake. Upon pulling my pontoon boat out that night I proceeded to attempt to wipe the water spots off and got really upset. The water spots were like minerals and would not wipe off, needless to say, I was quite discouraged. The next day I sprayed pure vinegar on it and wiped it down and it cleaned up very well and resorted to the fact that I was not going to spend the time to do this every time I went to the lake. I am a guide and am there every other day. I figured it would slowly go back to the way it was and I was o.k. with that. Then the next day Shark Hide arrived, I had already decided that I would return it and let the boat slowly go back to how it was. Upon opening the package I discovered it had gotten a leak from shipping and could not return it, I was a little pissed the way my project was going. I then thought about it, this is made by American Toon. It is for bare aluminum, not your car and your fiberglass boat and as an afterthought also aluminum. It is only for bare metal including aluminum. So I applied it as instructed and went to the lake that night. Upon pulling the boat out and clients leaving I proceeded to attempt to wipe it off as I had before on the other product and was prepared to be disappointed. As I started wiping it down, my exact words were Holy Sh.., this stuff actually works! It took me about 6-7 minutes to wipe my entire boat down and remove all the water spots. This stuff actually works. I have never wrote a testimonial before but as good as this stuff is I thought I owed it to them. Oh and by the way, they replaced my can that was 1/2 leaked out with a new one. Great customer service and a product that actually works.

In May of this year, I bought a brand new pontoon boat to replace a 10-year old boat that I also bought new. The old boat tubes were never treated when new with this stuff or any other specialty product, except for yearly cleaning and polishing. I'm in Michigan so the boating season is very short, normally June , July & August. The boat stays in the lake continuously but only for those 3 months. In late August or early September, the boat is taken out and the tubes power washed and scrubbed, then the boat is stored indoors for winter until the following spring season. After 10 years, the tubes had a layer of built-up greyish residue on them, but right before it was put up for sale, the tubes were polished to a mirror shine with an acid wash, and car buffer and abrasive aluminum polish...which only took about couple of hours per tube. not a big deal.Now on to the brand new boat. Prior to the new tubes ever going in the water, I treated them with the SharkHide product, making sure to follow the directions carefully and even acquired and used the suggested baby diaper for the application. I put several light coats rather than 1 thick coat, as another reviewer had suggested. The boat was put in the water late in the summer season this year due to Covid. SharkHide was applied in May and the boat did not go in the water until mid July so it had PLENTY of time to dry while sitting in the garage for over 2 months. Fast forward to now, the boat was just taken out of the lake last week and immediately power-washed. According to the claims made by other users of this product, that the tubes will look like new after power washing, but IN MY EXPERIENCE, THAT WAS NOT THE CASE. Below the water line, there's the usual white/gray hard surface film stuck on the tubes, just like in the untreated boat. In my opinion and experience, the extra several hours spent on the prep and application of this product DID NOTHING to prevent algae and sediment to stick to the surface of the tubes. In the spring, I will still have to clean the tubes with an acid solution and polish the aluminum with an abrasive polisher. To sum up: this product was a waste of money, time and effort. After power washing, the tubes look NO BETTER than the untreated boat did after its first season.

I just applied Sharkhide ti the pontoons on my boat. I was scared to do it at first. I have to tell you that the actual application of this product was very easy. Just follow the directions to the tee. Prep is very important! That is the time consuming part. My pontoons turned out great. I think this product will do what it claims to do. Only time will tell. If you have any questions look Sharkhide up on Facebook. The phone number is on there. The gentleman I talked to was very informative and even wanted me to call him when I was ready to apply the product so he could walk me through it.

There are lots of reviews, good and bad. This is what I got for you. Pontoon restore. Sanded from 120 to 400. Buffed to a mirror polish. Ok, seems good so far. Cleaned with soap and water. Cleaned again with acetone as a video mentioned. Label on can says lacquer thinner, so cleaned 2 times with that. Now I’m ready to apply. Followed directions on can with diaper application. Applied to a small area. Right away it took the shine off. What! Stopped and cleaned again with lacquer thinner and applied again. Same result. All that time to polish but to cloud the surface. This product does not seem to be useful for pontoons that are being refurbished and then polished. Might be good for new stuff but not older.