Help! My nice one year old Sun-Dura boat cover is black from oak tree sap.

[Douglasdzaster]

Besides a stabilizer I use Seafoam to keep carbon buildup down and improve the idle on my two stroke outboards. Been using it for years and it makes a big positive difference. My little 1985 Merc 2.2 runs like a top, starts on second pull and all original except plug and impeller.

I suppose every outboard is different. I stopped using Seafoam even though it’s good stuff but I tried Startron marine hd and on the second tank I noticed it running smoother and it treats the fuel as well. They claim it stops faze separation in ethanol fuel and when it encounters water it is broken down into particles that will burn with the fuel. Keep in mind I by none ethanol fuel only but you never know what’s coming out the pump. I purchase from the busiest store that sells a lot of it and the ethanol pump has to have it’s own separate hose set up if not the first 1/3 or so of a gallon you get is what ever the last guy purchased. Sometimes I’ll pump a couple gallons in my truck then fill the boat tank.
I just changed my fuel water separator filter after 18 months and it looked brand new. Poured it into a clean jar and let it sit for 30 minutes. Not a spec of water in the bottom of that fuel and I had my portable tank sit for a few months while I did some rebuild work.
Only problem the 1992 40hp Yamaha is hard starting cold and It can be a hassle pull starting that many times but it always starts. Rest of the day it’ll start first pull.

 

[LaqueRatt]

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” EG: You're fighting a battle you'll never win. What you may end up doing is making the situation worse with all the chemicals and scrubbing. This is surely weakening the fabric.

 

[airshot]

I have heard good things about Startron but haven't tried it yet. Basicly the same thing, also heard good things about Lucas fuel treatment. Not sure but I think Seafoam was the first that advertised battling E fuels, but remember, all fuels have had issues. Long before E fuels came out, Gumout was sold by the case to remove varnish buildup from gasoline !!

 

[LaqueRatt]

My stuff has been on a SF diet for a couple years now and not a single fuel issue! SeaFoam rocks! Pro tip: They sell it by the gallon.

Have had good luck with Gumout, but now the 4 wheelers get Techron which is the exact same additive GM dealers sell under their own name for mucho dinero. It's supposed to be the best stuff for direct injection engines which have a dry intake charge that tends to build up carbon on your intake valves. In the old days the charge was gas and air and this build up didn't occur.

 

[Douglasdzaster]

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” EG: You're fighting a battle you'll never win. What you may end up doing is making the situation worse with all the chemicals and scrubbing. This is surely weakening the fabric.

Come on LaqueRatt you know you love me.
I’m using Totally Awesome then Woolite to make sure I have all the awesome out and very soft bristle brush on a cordless drill while using a machine and lots of water to extract several times during the process. It is looking great and feels good and strong after it completely dries. It may rot to pieces in a week but I doubt it. I’m working under lights tonight to finish the first half. Would have finished today and treated but to many interruptions.
The other side isn’t near as bade so I’ll knock it out pretty quick in the morning.
Many moons ago when I was a young man I worked for a cleaning service that did carpet and upholstery etc. I was his carpet guy until he wanted to drop that part of the business and start doing other work.
He sent me to several seminars classes and sold me all his equipment and helped me get set up in my own business. I cleaned hundreds of carpets , expensive rugs upholstery. If it was fabric I could do it. More times than not there was some kind of jacked up situation that I had to figure out how to do. Back then there wasn’t near as many options like we have today.
I used some off the wall stuff sometimes but never had an unhappy customer. I wowed a lot of them. I never advertised it was all word of mouth.
This is my first boat cover and that business was a very longtime ago.
Wait until you see the new pictures.
I’m taking care to make sure there is no residue I mean nothing left in the threaded seems. I remembered that from the business.

 

[Douglasdzaster]

I have heard good things about Startron but haven't tried it yet. Basicly the same thing, also heard good things about Lucas fuel treatment. Not sure but I think Seafoam was the first that advertised battling E fuels, but remember, all fuels have had issues. Long before E fuels came out, Gumout was sold by the case to remove varnish buildup from gasoline !!

Oh yeah. I used Stabil Marine for years in all my gas cans then I had some go bad and ended up cleaning carburetors. I ask my wife what she put in them and she said same cans as always. I checked the cans and they both smelled like varnish. That’s when I became a Seafoam guy. I didn’t think I mentioned I never stopped using Seafoam I just added Startron. They both work differently and it was something to try. I haven’t decarbed in a while and I’m trying a can of Mercury power tune since reading a lot of google things about it.
Last time I tried CRC Marine Tune Up and Decarbonizer. It was recommended buy a guy that gave me a bunch of advice walking me through the rebuilding of my carburetors.
It worked great but not much different than Seafoam decarbing.
I had never decarbed an outboard and did it on a lake. Since I was told when I finished it was important to run it at wot a while.
It was a week day and I don’t think I saw anyone else there thank goodness. I pulled up into an out of the way spot in some reeds. Pulled the cowling and keeping the motor at the suggested rpms started to spray it in the three carburetors. I’d spray it in one until it started sputtering and I’d have to raise the rpms to keep it running then it would recover and I did the next carburetor. Kept this up until I used almost the whole can.
About a quarter of the way though it started smoking. By the time I got finished it was smoking like a train. I looked up and couldn’t see a thing around me. There was no wind so the smoke hung out.
I killed the motor to let it sit a while like I was instructed. I’m sitting there worried someone is going to report a fire.
After a few minutes I pulled the rope and hit the main lake and went from one end to the other of the small lake several times. I kept looking over in those reeds and smoke is still lingering.
At first it ran rough and did everything but backfire. I never let off the throttle wondering what I had done to my motor.
I started letting off and it let out a hiccup while slowing down.
I opened it back up and said dog gone it (with different words) Run or blow up. A minute later it starting smoothing our and making the boat begin to skip a little to the point I had to keep steering to keep it straight.
That’s my second long story for the night I got to go finish the last spot of sap clean up on one side of the cover so I can stop until tomorrow.

 

[Douglasdzaster]

My stuff has been on a SF diet for a couple years now and not a single fuel issue! SeaFoam rocks! Pro tip: They sell it by the gallon.

Have had good luck with Gumout, but now the 4 wheelers get Techron which is the exact same additive GM dealers sell under their own name for mucho dinero. It's supposed to be the best stuff for direct injection engines which have a dry intake charge that tends to build up carbon on your intake valves. In the old days the charge was gas and air and this build up didn't occur.

Techron is the best. I did a lot of research awhile back and came across a huge write up on aTechron. I wished I would have saved it so I could share.

 

[LDUBS]

I was going to mix some up today but had some Woolite and I tried it with my upholstery brush attached to a drill. Woolite didn’t clean very well and the medium brush I have is to rough. So I just got home from HD with a soft bristle one I needed to add to my cleaning supplies anyway.
I also grabbed a gallon of Totally Awesome. When had a cleaning company on the side in College Station those A&M students would move in and out. I bought this stuff at the dollar store and it cleaned everything.
If the apartment was repainted it removed the over spray.


The Star Brite warning is because it’s solvent base and if there’s an adhesive backing it could mess that up.
The manufacturer recommends 303 Marine fabric guard that they happen to sell. It’s solvent base too.
I also found some water based water and uv protectant in my shop made by Better Boat.
Where I do have success cleaning there’s still sap in some of the little squares that are in the weave. I may have to style and be happy with that which is fine as long as the sap doesn’t cause rotting.
I’ll be mixing up some more Borax solution tomorrow and trying that soft brush on my drill. I think the key is be patient and let stuff work and doing places more than once.

But I’m at the point where tomorrow what I really want to do is take care of a throttle cable issue. Get the portable fuel tank ready so I can switch. Run the motor , run some Mercury power tune through it and smoke up the neighborhood. Put the new plugs in and go to the water and drive it like I stole it. Then catch some bait so Monday or Tuesday I can go to the bigger lake and drift all day dragging bait waiting on those big catfish to give my stuff a good pull.It’s getting to be that time of year and I got a report the big fish are moving out to deep water.

but I’m here scrubbing sap

"Beats scrubbing sap" is my new saying! Haha

 

[Douglasdzaster]

"Beats scrubbing sap" is my new saying! Haha

The Totally Awesome and Woolite was getting it done today. I had interruptions of course but managed to get the worst half done.
The other side shouldn’t be a problem tomorrow.
Then I’m doing my maintenance work on the outboard and I’m going fishing. If I don’t just ride around yelling Beats scrubbing sap!

 

[Douglasdzaster]

Well here it is. It’s not perfect. I can tell where I got a little to rough. The Awesome and Woolite were all most impossible to get rinsed completely out so I went back to 303 marine multi surface and diluted it. It did good and I rinsed twice with clean water using my extraction machine. I was seeing clean water come out. Some areas there’s still faded remnants of the sap but I’m happy that I was able to get it this far.
Now my worry is this is the wrong time of year to be applying Fabric guard.
I sprayed it today while in the 70’s and sun shining bright. No moisture in the forecast for three days but it’s cooling off. Wind is strong. I went ahead of myself with a shop vac with a brush to remove any debris I couldn’t see then sprayed it.
I was putting everything a way and started for the house. I stopped and said I need a picture for the forum.

 

[Stand Up]

Excellent. Looks as good as new, but a bit older. Good job on that young man!

 

[LDUBS]

Now I feel just a little guilty about my cover. Haha.

 

[airshot]

Bet you learned that lesson! Good job.

 

[Douglasdzaster]

I’ve been saying I’m going to do it. But I am going to get my shop uncluttered and do my best to organize it so I can back my boat in. I may have to stack the mowers on top of each other or sell some things but the boat is going in there.
When we moved in 10 years ago I had all my tools , lawn and garden equipment etc. All organized and was able to fit my sister’s 16’ bass boat in it the 70 hp outboard left just enough room for me to work on it.
Since then it’s not only full of tools etc. that just need to be put up. I have acquired a few things. Drill press , table saw , chop saw , torch kit etc.
I just keep moving from one project to the next and have several things going at once between my diy projects and repairs around the house.
This afternoon I found the saw blades and other things to make my first planer boards. Was trying to come up with the neatest way to cut the 2” thick closed cell foam board I’m using( left over from the boat) and I found a 140 tooth saw blade still in the package. Then a new pack of jigsaw blades laying behind stuff on the bench so I can cut the aluminum (also left over from the boat) heat shrink (from boat re wiring) to cover threads on the bolts where the release clips will be. The material I need for my Dremel to round off the edges of the aluminum. I was going to go buy most of this stuff. Now I can do the planer boards tomorrow if i can get my prep work done for cooking Tuesday first (Making about 5 gallons of gumbo).I have in boxes labeled the center caps for the wheels on my truck to be refinished and all the parts of my trolling motor in another box. An antique hand saw I inherited from my grandfather who took excellent care of every tool he ever owned so he had tools that where already pretty old and left certain things to my brothers cousins and me. I let the saw rust hanging in my shop. Today I was looking around finding stuff I forgot I had and just happened to look at the saw hanging on the pegboard. I took it down looked at it and felt ashamed. So I removed the old fasteners and took the handle off. Rounded up the sand paper I’ll need to help make it look new and put it all in a box ahead of all the others.
I still need to rebuild the front deck on the boat and add storage while I’m at it. But that’s how everything got to be a mess was the boat rebuild. I had an area for cutting and working with aluminum,an area for painting and then another where I completely rewired the switch panel I bought and where all the wiring and connectors and switches and fasteners lived. That’s three tables I’m doing away with. Oh don’t forget where I applied penetrating epoxy to the new floor.
I’m getting my $&*t together organizing my tools so I can take better care of what I have. Cleaning the heck out of the place as soon as everything is where it’s supposed to be and backing the boat in one way or another.

Because scrubbing tree sap sucks!

 

[Douglasdzaster]

Excellent. Looks as good as new, but a bit older. Good job on that young man!

Thank you

 

[Douglasdzaster]

Now I feel just a little guilty about my cover. Haha.

What I feel guilty about is my shop being in such a dis era that I can’t get the boat in it.

 

[Douglasdzaster]

Bet you learned that lesson! Good job.

Thanks for the compliment.
Yer sir I’m going to make sure I never have to do it again.

 

[LDUBS]

What I feel guilty about is my shop being in such a dis era that I can’t get the boat in it.

That seems to just be the nature of all normal workshops -- unless you are a neat freak like Felix Unger (you will have to be of a certain age to get that reference! haha).

 

[Stand Up]

That seems to just be the nature of all normal workshops -- unless you are a neat freak like Felix Unger (you will have to be of a certain age to get that reference! haha).

Felix Unger. The Odd Couple. What was the other guy's name? Oscar. I googled it. That was one of my favorite shows.

 

[Lost But Happy]

That seems to just be the nature of all normal workshops -- unless you are a neat freak like Felix Unger (you will have to be of a certain age to get that reference! haha).

Hey hey now, Im not of that "certain" age, but I know who they are!!

Felix and Oscar much later in life. lol