Went to new lake and now boat is yellow, wtf?
 

I normally trailer my boat (2k9 Supra 21V) back and forth to the river, which looks like chocolate milk, and wash it everytime I get back home. Last week we went on vacation to a lake up in MI and the boat stayed in the water the whole week. The water was super clear, you could see 8-10 down. But when i got home I notice that all the white areas of the boat looked yellow including the vinyl on the sun pad area. So I washed it with soap and water. . .nothing. I had to rewax the whole boat and wash the vinyl and use Malco leather vinyl cleaner. About 90% of everything came back to the original white except some areas on the vinyl. Any ideas on how to get this back to normal???

Starbrite Hull Cleaner on the fiberglass. Available at most any marine store.

And Malco, Babes or Exquisite with a brush on the interior.

Acetone from the hardware store. It'll take it right off, don't waste your money on those expensive useless marine products. It's like pissing in the wind.

Brandon I never heard of Acetone. Ill give it a try. Is OK to use on vinyl?

I would be very careful with acetone on vinyl.

The best thing for cleaning my vinyl was orange degreaser and a finger nail brush. The degreaser and other vinyl cleaners did almost nothing with just a rag but scrubbing in small circles with a soft brush removed all of the ground in grease and what not.

I got the particular degreaser that I used in the auto section at Wal-Mart. It was called something like Power Clean and said it was safe for vinyl, carpet, etc.

For stains on the hull oxalic acid applied with a sponge takes most stains off. This is the active ingredient in most hull cleaners as well as toilet bowl cleaners. Wipe it on and give it about 30 seconds then hose it off. You should follow up with wax because it strips all of that off. I've heard of using oxalic acid on the vinyl too.

I was told Aceton will work, but to be careful. I was told it is good, but if you scrub too hard or too long it starts to heat up and will melt the vinyl. This is not form personal experience just what I was told by a friend who uses it on his vinyl.

acetone aka nail polish remover. seems a little harsh to me....

Try not to use harsh cleaners on your vinyl,it could cause the vinyl to become hard and brittle and cause it to start cracking.I would use a cleaner made for vinyl and a soft scrub brush,what doesn't come up with that will eventually fade from the sun and use.If you scrub with something harsher you may end up doing more harm than good.

yeah after researching acetone it seems to like to harsh of a chemical to use on vinyl. One alternative that i did find was distilled white vinegar. Im gonna try this today although my hopes arent to high because this is more of a discoloration then dirt or grime. O well we'll see.

I'd give the sun some time to do it's work before I scrubbed too hard with harsh chemicals or abrasives. Often, a couple of days in the sun will fade discoloration like you are describing.

Acetone is also very drying and could cause the vinyl to become britle.

I've found that the key on vinyl is the soft bristle brush. Don't dismiss a mild cleaner until you've tried it with something like a finger nail brush.

Lots of people swear by SoftScrub with bleach for vinyl stains. Supposedly it won't hurt the vinyl but you should keep it away from the stitching. I used to use it on my dad's center console boat back in high school but I never looked closely enough to notice any ill effects. I'd be a little more careful if I was going to try it now.

Starbrite Super Spray Boat Cleaner for the interior. Trust me. It's not super expensive either.

sounds like pollen to me, if so good luck, been there done that, nothing works except time and i mean long time....

No, do not use it on your vinyl. Use bleach but go easy on it.