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Painting a Narrow Boat DIY


Rufio197

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  • 2 weeks later...
7 minutes ago, Tom766 said:

Will paint my springer next summer, anyone ground off welds?  My boats covered in terrible welding...

That is what we did but did not go too far as the welds did not penetrate the steel. What we did was reduce the height of the welds and then floated filler across it, rubbed down and then painted. The result was good but is was a very slow process given the number of welds involved!

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Was on ours too. I flattened them off a bit but did not bother filling, I just painted the roof with that deck paint that has the rubber granuals in it (Protecta-Kote if I recall). That disguised the welds reasonably well. We had that  boat some years.

Edited by Traveller
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I checked the Owatrol website, and there are quite a few products, are we talking Owatrol CIP to prime any steel surface.

Does it sand?

The Dulux Weathershield is a masonry paint, is ths the one you are all using on cabin sides and roofs?

Edited by LadyG
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16 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I believe that the earlier references to Owatrol were Owatrol Oil, used as a flow additive. 

https://www.owatroldirect.co.uk/product/owatrol-oil/

Right, that makes more sense, ty.

Its best to be clear about these things,  I think i'll stick with the Craftsman Paint if it does not need adjustment: from past experience, I always end up with 0.65l of non standard quantities and colours at the end of any job where I have done a bit of  mixing. They get kept "just in case", then ten years later, when I need a bit of paint in an hurry,  [as last weekend], I  find the paint has gone  off, and its still drying this weekend!

Edited by LadyG
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46 minutes ago, LadyG said:

ten years later, when I need a bit of paint in an hurry,  [as last weekend], I  find the paint has gone  off...

Store the tins upside down. It's not a miracle cure but it helps loads. 

47 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Right, that makes more sense, ty.

Its best to be clear about these things

You have to take it in context with the period. At that time there was a lot of talk about Owatrol Oil all over the forum. 

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1 hour ago, LadyG said:

Right, that makes more sense, ty.

Its best to be clear about these things,  I think i'll stick with the Craftsman Paint if it does not need adjustment: from past experience, I always end up with 0.65l of non standard quantities and colours at the end of any job where I have done a bit of  mixing. They get kept "just in case", then ten years later, when I need a bit of paint in an hurry,  [as last weekend], I  find the paint has gone  off, and its still drying this weekend!

yep, tins upside down is essential to prevent a skin, but it was my old yacht paint that went off, no skin, OK to apply, just v v slow to dry, 

Edited by LadyG
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1 hour ago, Tom766 said:

Is it true that Springers were made from the re claimed steel from the old huge gas reservoirs once seen all over the country?

The word you were searching for was Gasometer ;)

That's how the story goes, for sure. 

As for whether there's any truth to it...

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  • 3 years later...
On 29/07/2010 at 20:12, kienik said:

im just in the process of re-painting my Nb, i used Dulux Weathershield grey for the undercoat and i am currently using Dulux Trade Gloss, bit of Owatrol and i have a near perfect finish, i have never painted a boat before so was a bit nervous of the finish i would achieve, i spent four weekends just sanding back the previous paintwork with 120 grip sanding discs bought from a car body shop,

 

after this i applied three to four coats of dulux weathershield undercoat and primer, sanded that back with 400 grip sanding discs then cleaned of with thinners, i applied the dulux trade top coat of green with a foam roller (went through eight paint trays and well over fifteen foam rollers!!!), once paint was applied with roller i feathered it off with a long haired brush and i was amazed with the finish i achieved, their are some slight imperfections in the steel work and this screamed out at me when i put the top coat on but my boat is a little Springer built in 1991 so i was never going to get a 100% pristine finish.

 

would i buy boat paints................ not on your bllomin nelly, just spend loads of time preparing the steel and invest in some decent brushes oh and the much loved Owatrol.

 

Nik

How long did it take you to sand your primer/undercoat. We are almost at the sand it back stage after painting these on a 70ft and trying to understand how long it’ll take us! 

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On 15/08/2017 at 12:32, Tom766 said:

could grate cheese on the roof edges along the length of the boat :D

Is it true that Springers were made from the re claimed steel from the old huge gas reservoirs once seen all over the country?

 

 

The history of Sam Springer's boats :

 

 

Credit_Alan-Fincher_via-Canalworld.net_-e1479828144588-740x493.jpg

 

 

Even in the seemingly egalitarian world of boaters, there’s a social pecking order and this is rarely more pronounced than where Springer boats are concerned. Springer was a company based in the Midlands that began mass-producing cheap and cheerful live-aboard narrowboats in the 1960s. While their affordability allowed countless people to join the boating lifestyle, the standard of their construction is sometimes, perhaps unfairly, questioned by the sniffier residents of converted working boats or higher-spec residential craft. But there’s still something hugely endearing about the Springer. These are boats made solidly and entirely without pretension, and as a consequence Springer boats have provided a friendly and affordable introduction to the canal network for thousands of boaters.

Sam Springer spotted the growing market for purpose-built live-aboard boats in the late 1960s when he was working as a steel fabricator making water tanks in Market Harborough, close to the Grand Union and River Welland. He decided to move into boat-building later claiming “I used to build water tanks, building boats is the same thing but in reverse”. Although his boats were well constructed, Springer had a reputation for using whatever steel was available, meaning that his hulls weren’t always as thick as they could have been. His approach can be summarised by the popular yarn that early in his career, Springer acquired some scrap steel that had once formed an old gasometer and drove back and forwards over it with a truck to remove the bend so it was flat enough to use. Because of such shortcuts, his boats were recognised as providing great value for money and his yard was soon knocking out 400 a year, accounting for almost 50 per cent of the market and at a much lower price than any competition.

Springer boats were built to all sizes but most have two distinguishing features: a raised splash board at the bow and, less visibly, a v-shaped hull rather than the usual flat bottom. They were also among the first boats to be built entirely out of steel rather than with a wooden cabin. Springers do have a tendency to look a little boxy, which does nothing for their reputation among waterways connoisseurs, but they are still lovable boats with a colourful history that, as the years have passed, has lent them a certain rakish charm. Belying their reputation, Springer boats also appear to be impressively hard-wearing with thousands still in use despite the fact the company closed down in the mid-1990s. And Springer boats aren’t just confined to the English waterways – in 1990, the boatyard built the Typhoo Atlantic Challenger, a 37-foot craft shaped like a bottle that crossed the Atlantic from New York to Falmouth. Not bad for a company whose first boats were made from a scrapped gasometer.

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9 minutes ago, Petalsnow said:

How long did it take you to sand your primer/undercoat. We are almost at the sand it back stage after painting these on a 70ft and trying to understand how long it’ll take us! 

Welcome.
I'm afraid you are unlikely to get a reply to a thread 10 years old and from a member who last visited in 2018.
And I suspect the answer to your question is, how long is a piece of string. It will depend on far too many variables to give a good answer.

 

6 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

The history of Sam Springer's boats :

Alan, and that thread's from 2017!

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7 minutes ago, Graham Davis said:

Welcome.
I'm afraid you are unlikely to get a reply to a thread 10 years old and from a member who last visited in 2018.
And I suspect the answer to your question is, how long is a piece of string. It will depend on far too many variables to give a good answer.

 

Alan, and that thread's from 2017!

Oh crikey! Didn’t realise it was so old - should have checked ? thanks! I’ll get my string out then. 

  • Haha 1
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