Preventing tarnish on bronze winches

[rose20532]

I just re-finished my old Barlow winches on my '75 Catalina 25. I got rid of all the pitted chrome plate and brought the bronze to a great high gloss with Flitz polish and cleaner. The problem is, everytime it rains I get a little tarnish formed which requires another "Flitz-ing" to get them back to the high gloss. Is there anything I can put on the polished bronze to seal them from tarnishing evertime it rains? The winch covers help some, but I get the tarnishing at the bass of the winch even with them on. Many thanks.

 

[Greg Pecaut]

They're Bronze

They're Bronze, they are going to tarnish! You could try clear coating them, but the clear coat will wear off and they will tarnish then. The idea of bronze is to let them tarnish evenly to a nice brown bronze color. Keep the heavy corrosion down and just wipe them with a rag lightly oiled with something like wd40. You can slow the tarnishing and help it come out more even by waxing them. But remember you need friction on the drum to pull the lines.