FEEDBACK ON TINNY PROJECT

G`day All,

Way back on the 17th of Jan this year, thread # 83710, I asked for your ideas on stripping paint from a tinny.
At that time I was contemplating modifying and repainting my 12 ft Aluminium boat.
The boat is a very good “Hawker Dehavalin” (spelling) Vee Bottom that I bought second hand in the early 70`s.
Back in Jan. in thread # 83710 Bluefly said that “I wound be better off eloping with a flying Wombat” than to try and strip the old paint off. He was spot on.
After nearly 7 lts of gel paint stripper and a few soft wire rotary brushes and many hours of work and a continual mess, the paint was all off.
I then removed the front seat and moved the middle seat forward about 500mm.
I wanted to make the boat a bit more stable, much like the modern style with a flatter bottom and deeper sides.
I got 2 x 500mm x 2.4m x 2mm thick lengths of aluminium plate folded along the length 80mm in from the edge, I cut and fitted these to the underneath sides of the boat on each side, tig welding these cost a bit but it turned out pretty good. (Over 40 ft of tig welding)

I filled the cavity created by these new edges with refrigeration expansion foam, which sets very hard, to add strength to the new bottom area.
N.B. Very difficult stuff to use into an area that has no opening at the top to see into.

I now wanted to build a boat loader to load the boat onto the pack rack without me having to lift it so I delayed painting it until I had this completed.

I will do another Blog describing the loading method if any one is interested.

By using the Warn Winch on the front of my 60 series and a rope harness set up attached to the boat, I can now load the boat without any lifting from me by using the Winch Remote, a slight pull on a rope to pull the boat over onto the pack rack from its vertical position is all that is required.

Now back to painting the boat.
Etched primed all over then inside sprayed with automotive grey flecked paint (Called “Chook bleep ” in the trade).
The outside was then sprayed with White Automotive Enamel with 25% hardener added.
A decorative blue stripe was then sprayed along each side.
The name and the registration number were cut from vinyl of the same shade of blue.

Looks ok I reckon even if it has taken three and a half months.

I might have to try it out but I don't want to get it dirty. LOL

Scrubby.