I stripped down the old varnish on the rudder cheeks. The finish that was used before was worn and the wood itself is cracking but overall, not so bad that they need replaced. These are large pieces of wood, I think mahogany that's 3/4" thick. Taking the old varnish off, they showed some nice looking wood underneath. They soaked up some thinned Epifanes varnish when I mixed 50% mineral spirits so they'll take quite a few coats to really start looking good.
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| Sanded down |
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| First coat of varnish, thinned 50% |
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| First coat on one side of chainplate spacers |
I was chatting with others online about my chainplate replacement and there was a mention of Collinite Metal Wax as being a good metal polish. I took them up on that suggestion. I don't have a bench grinder with a buffing pad as another Nor'sea owner, Greg, did so I wanted to find an alternative. I found at Lowes hardware store an attachment for the drill that accepts sockets. This allowed me to spin the bolts quickly that got them to polish up really nice.
Here's a video showing how the bolts were getting polished.
New chainplates made of 316 stainless arrived. They are nicely polished. Looking forward to getting them on the boat once the paint work is finished. These together with the polished bolts will look pretty sharp on the boat.
Aside from replacing the chainplates, the other big project I'm doing while the old one's are off is to repaint the blue stripe by the toe rail a different color. On a couple nice days, 13 and 14 Sep, I painted some primer to get it ready for the top coat. I put a coat of primer on and came back the next day to sand smooth and paint a second coat. The second day was sunny and it was drying pretty quickly. Next, will be having to sand the second coat smooth and put on the top coat of Burgundy Pettit EasyPoxy.
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| First coat of burgundy |
27 Sep, I sanded down the first coat of burgundy on the port side. I sanded the primer on the starboard side and painted the first coat of burgundy. I've thinned the paint pretty good but still getting brush marks. It's likely to be because it's been warm out and very windy. I may try adding a little more thinner but not sure how that would work. I'm expecting to paint several coats to at least get an even color.
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| Sanded first coat |
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| Second coat on port side |
A lot of work has been done but still much more to do. I've been working once a week in the weekend. Not enough but I'll take what I can. All this work will get the boat looking better than it has in a very long time. This boat will be ready for another 30+ years soon enough.
