Cleaning Bronze Portlights Frames (Exterior)

[Taras]

Hey All,
I've never had bronze portlights before. The interior frames still look very nice but the exterior frames have changed color, look dirty and need cleaning.
Any suggestions on what to use to clean them? Once they are looking nice, do people coat them with anything to keep them looking nice?
Thanks for any suggestions!
Taras

 

[Mambo42]

Hey All,
I've never had bronze portlights before. The interior frames still look very nice but the exterior frames have changed color, look dirty and need cleaning.
Any suggestions on what to use to clean them? Once they are looking nice, do people coat them with anything to keep them looking nice?
Thanks for any suggestions!
Taras

I also have a lot of bronze around the boat and have tried to polish it many times. It is possible to get it to a bright gold/copper color shine, but that will only last for a few weeks, perhaps a month. After that it will start to discolor again, turning green in the end. During the summer you may have the will to stand in the dinghy and polish it every other week, but when you put the boat away for the winter you won't go there every week or every other week to polish the bronze.
In the end I simply gave up and decided that keeping it shiny is an extreme amount of work, not worth wasting my time on trying anymore.
So all the bronze is now nicely green again.
I did have a great product for polishing, if you are interested in the name I can dive into the box with cleaning materials.