Painting our Springer Waterbug!!

[Fozzi in Lancashire]

Hi All, hope everyone is enjoying the Summer. We are about to start painting our newly aquired Springer

and just wondered what you thought of Tekaloid Paint. It's from Smith & Allan, Darlington, Co Durham

and seems to be a really good price for undercoat & single pack coach enamel (Tekaloid 318). Has anyone

heard of this please? Seems a lot less than International Toplac & other top names, just wondered if there

was a catch?

On a different note, just prior to buying our Springer, the previous lady owner had the tiller arm stolen! With

the Waterbug at the stern there is only room for a short tiller arm and ones for sale all seem to be huge. Any 

ideas on where we might find a shorter arm please?

Thanks everyone, look forward to hearing from you.

Regards, Fozzi.

[Alan de Enfield]

No idea about the paint, but with regard to the tiller, have you considered buying a standard size arm and a hack-saw ?

[WotEver]

I used Tekaloid to hand paint a Mini Traveller once - it looked great

[Neil2]

Tekaloid has been around for a long time, a favourite of banger owners in the 1970's I painted my Morris Minor van with it.  TBH you can get away with almost anything on a Waterbug, a boat that would probably look wrong with a modern shiny two pack finish.  And it won't take long..!  I did ours over a week and got about six coats on it.

Re the tiller arm - Waterbugs normally have an outboard with a tiller arm permanently attached, it sounds like yours is different?  Is it the same sort of arrangement as a conventional NB ie a swan neck with a detachable tube?  If so then as Alan De says why not buy a tube and cut it to length.  With our outboard I wasn't happy with the tiller as it was so I got one made exactly as I wanted it, a fairly simple job for any boatyard/blacksmith. 

[Crow]

When I had a outboard on my waterbug I had a short length of barge pole that fitted into a bit of pipe welded to the tiller,and just put a pin in it to secure it,it needed to come out easy as it blocked access to entry to cabin.i landed up fitting a steering  wheel,well worth the £100 odd pounds and time to fit you wouldn't regret it.  Mines about 2.75 or 3 :1 ratio as far as I can remember.trouble was the tiller arm had to be fairly long to get some leverage to steer it ,to short and it's hard work on the arms

[firstboat]

I have a waterbug, I think the tiller was custom made, it slots straight into the outboard, I can send you dimensions/photos if you like. it is constructed of 2 small plates and a bent piece of pipe, welded together.

On 7/23/2017 at 13:21, Crow said:

When I had a outboard on my waterbug I had a short length of barge pole that fitted into a bit of pipe welded to the tiller,and just put a pin in it to secure it,it needed to come out easy as it blocked access to entry to cabin.i landed up fitting a steering  wheel,well worth the £100 odd pounds and time to fit you wouldn't regret it.  Mines about 2.75 or 3 :1 ratio as far as I can remember.trouble was the tiller arm had to be fairly long to get some leverage to steer it ,to short and it's hard work on the arms

Interested in learning more about this steering wheel set up.

 

[OldPeculier]

I used Tractol, also from Smith and Allen. 

[Fozzi in Lancashire]

Thanks everyone, very helpful comments as usual!! Big help, thanks again. Fozzi.