Remove Steel from Deck

Ted Alley

New Member

Hi,
I do not have a cover for my Laser and so when someone was grinding nearby, hundreds of tiny flakes of steel landed on my deck. Of course they immediately began to rust, but that was easily cleaned up with some fiberglass cleaner. The problem is that the steel flakes are still stuck onto the deck, because they were hot when they landed so likely melted on. Is there any sort of chemical treatment I can use to dissolve them but not the gelcoat? I do not want to have the expense of putting a new gelcoat on the deck.
Thanks for any suggestions.
 
I have not tried those options yet... I guess I was jumping right to the conclusion that I'd need something so abrasive it would ruin the deck. I will try those next time I'm at my club, but I doubt they would have much effect, as I've scratched at a couple with my fingernails and can't get them. For a while I considered plucking each one off with a knife, but that would take ages.

@whitfit, although the culprit wasn't very intelligent by doing it, he is taking responsibility and has offered to pay for whatever needs to be done to fix it.
 
MiLLz, that reminds me of when MythBusters used explosives to remove cured cement from a cement truck. Unfortunately I'm not willing to blow my Laser into a thousand bits. I think I'll give the brush and pressure washing a try today, and report back later.
 
as much as it sucks, you might have to wait for the grindings to rust away to nothing, then deal with cleaning up the rust. Red hot metal filings have a tendency to melt into things really well and dont come out easily.
 
That is probably what will end up happening. I got the worst of it off with Vim (I know it scratches the boat but I wasn't too worried) and a brush, and the rest I think I'll just let rust away. I may even try accelerating it by wetting the boat a couple times a day, since I work at the club where I store it.
 

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