alright I know this is one of those questions but I had to ask will such things like vari-nozzles and brass fittings shine up using gatorade ? If anyone knows please write back and is it a certain color gatorade ?

elbow grease and never dull work best

Not sure what they are drinking now, but the "bug juice", powdered drink mixture of old, carried a lot of acid and did a fair job of removing verdigris from old brasswork, then nev-r-dull or brasso and elbow grease kicked in.

Some of my deck hands tried a comparison between OSPHO and Mountain Dew, for running rust, and they felt both were equal in effectiveness.

I understand good elbow grease. I have a vari- nozzle that looks as if it has never been cleaned so i will try to find the bug juice if not i will try gatorade i am just not sure what the sugar will do to it

Might even want to inquire over on the FS topics. They just had a discussion going about the tradition of polishing the ships bell. If you ask, they may have some insight to pass along concerning the ingredients in todays bug juice. Can't hurt.

Master Mate

I raided the galley on my 110 trying everything that our cook had aboard, trying to find a suitable replacement for Bug Juice.

The best replacement product that I came up with was vinegar. Other products that I tried included a whole can of cool aid powder (enough to make a five gallon jug) lemon juice, hot sauce, any many more products that I tried, but do not recall now.

Bottom line there is no environmentally/people safe product that I have found that matches the results from cherry flavor bug juice (1 packet mixed with a 1/2 Gal of warm water) to clean vari-nozzles (APN back then )

BM1 Sends

Ketchup worked good on a few things but you have to submerge it in the ketchup and wait a few days.

quote:

Originally posted by Surolls05:
I understand good elbow grease. I have a vari- nozzle that looks as if it has never been cleaned so i will try to find the bug juice if not i will try gatorade i am just not sure what the sugar will do to it

I have read somewhere that in years gone by, the cook used to use vinegar to shine the ships bell.

If you are concerned about sugar, use Diet Mountain Dew. Actually it might be a good experiment to try Diet and Regular mountain dew, and see the difference.

I learned from an old BOSN (former QM) that if you mix Brasso and Comet in a runny paste, a rag and elbow grease, you can get through the green stuff pretty quickly. As you are getting closer, clean it up and shift to straight brasso or nevr dull to finish it up.

When I was at Station Portsmouth Harbor, one of my BM2's (Jim Sawyer) took on the brass boat hooks on 4 41 footers. He started with fine wet/dry sand paper, then a couple different grades of jewelers rouge, and finished off with nevr dull ... and they looked sharp.

Good luck with it, let us know what worked for you.

--Jim
Life is Good!

I agree with the red bug juice. Works great to get the crevices clean. The a good clean rinse with a white pad and clean water, then good ole never dull.

-chris

Yes the gatorade does work only to take off the grime, does not shine it...

I always found that a good bath in Chem-7 worked prtty damn well. I know you aren't supposed to use it but if you can find a bottle of it I would use it, then follow up with Flitz.

The best thing I've ever found was NeverDull along with plenty of:

Well the results are in Red Gatorade works great on vari nozzles and the top of the eductor the only thing is it leaves like a red dye on the vari nozzle thanks everyone for all the different ideas .

The government issue red "bug juice" was the best if available, used to get a couple of packets from the cook everytime we pulled into GITMO. It also works great in the bilge to clean up grime, using a brush and elbbow grease. If not available TOBASCO sauce and a green pad will work to take the grime off.

Soak your vari-nozzles in a bucket of grape bug juice powder (the cheaper the better). It doesn't shine but takes all the green off. I also saw my old DCC shine the ship's bell with Tobasco. We were bored on anchor detail and we wanted to see if it would work. Worked like a champ but still required the elbow grease.

When I had a tough vari nozzel to shine I would soak it in a bucket of "Lousiana hot sauce" that our cook always had pleanty of. If left long enough it will turn the brazz green, then I would use never dull with wire brushes, and green and white pads. seemed to do the trick. The easiest of course is to just have your non-rates keep up with it so it doesnt become a big issue.

PINEAPPLE JUICE!!!

works the best. Evertime RFO or Stan team come around drop them in a bucket w/ that a little water to fill it up. works over night. It the citric acid that does it.

USE TOBASCO SAUCE, THEN USE NEVERDULL. CUTS THE TIME DOWN TO LESS THAN HALF

put some neverdull pads on an electric sander(jitterbug) put a green or white pad on top of that, takes all the elbow grease out of the scenario and will strip off years of neglect.