Today I'm going to be doing a little DIY on the boat.
When we bought the boat a year ago,
It had a cratch cover on. Like on the front here.
So this wood had never really been exposed to the weather, or the winter before .
But obviously this year it had it all, with the rain and the snow and the ice and the freezing and the sunshine.
And some of the varnish has started to come off.
So the inside of the door isn't quite as damaged as the outside,
but obviously there has been some condensation forming around the windows.
And that's damaged this bit here.
So today I am going to sand it all back down. And appy some new varnish.
I did a little test area last week, where in one area I used a chemical stripper to take off the varnish,
and in the other area I just used the sandpaper. And they both worked fine,
So I'm not going to worry about using the chemical stripper on the whole door.
I'm just going to sand it all back down, and then hopefully apply the varnish.
And it's a beautiful day so hopefully it won't rain,
and hopefully George won't come and stick his fur on it.
So first I'm going to sand it all back.
I've got a selection of different grade sandpapers.
I think I am going to use the 180 and then the 240 on this door.
Okay, so there has been a slight change of plan. The sanding was working really well for the flat bits,
but as soon as I tried to do the bits... the curved bits,
I couldn't get all of the varnish off. So I am going to use the chemical stripper after all.
I've also taken the brass off. So I can make sure I can get all of the vanish off from under there.
And urm, so now I just need to clean up all the dust I've created.
And prepare the wood to use the chemical stripper.
I'm going to put some tape on to protect the glass.
So this looks like it is going to take a lot longer than I thought it would. But never mind.
Pour into over cap and replace screw cap immediately.
Apply a thick coat with a dabbing action. Once paint has blistered, 5 to 10 minutes.
Apply a second coat working into the blistered paint. Leave for up to 40 minutes.
Removed blistered and softened paint with a scraper or shave hook.
So this is what it looks like after ten minutes when it starts blistering.
And I'm going to put the next layer on now.
So it's been on for 40 minutes now, so it's time to take it off and clean it, clean it up.
So I've got as much as I can off, using the scraper,
and now I'm going to use white spirit and wire wool to see if I can get the rest off.
If not, it will be another coat of the Nitro Mores which I don't want to do
It's now the next day, and sometime late yesterday afternoon,
I realised that my plan of getting both doors sanded and varnished in one day was somewhat naive.
What I did actually manage to do was get, this door sanded.
So chemically stripped with the Nitro Mores, cleaned up with white spirit and steel wool and then sanded.
It's not perfect, I still need to do a little bit but I'm going to get going on the other door, this morning.
So yeah, the doo on the right hasn't been done, and the door on the left has been.
And so, this is what it looks like before. With the water damage.
And that one, is all stripped back, but the water damage is still showing though.
And the first job is to remove the brass.
And what I've been doing is actually, when I've been removing it,
taping the screws for that piece, to the handle or the grill or whatever,
and then writing which part of the door it goes onto, so there easier to put back on.
Based on what I learned yesterday doing this door, the way I'm gonna do it,
is I'm going to wash this door down first, key it a little bit with the sander,
Use the Nitro Mores chemical to strip the varnish off as much as possible,
Then use wire wool and white spirit to strip the rest off, and then sand it using the three different grades it's not paper
and then this door, might end up like this door, but quicker, than it took me, to get this door like this door.
It's basically 6:30 in the evening, and I've been working on this all day
Michael's been napping and... I have not been napping.... eating ice cream... I brought you the ice cream.
He's been working too. It's been 22 degrees today and I'm absolutely broken.
And all I have managed to do is strip both the doors, there's no varnish on them yet.
So.. and I thought it was a one-day job. and it turns out it's a three-day job.
Well it's a two-day, and some, could be a 10 day job for all I know.
Yeah, because you've got to do two coats of varnish, it's gonna be a multi-day job.
The George has had a nice time sitting here just above the Foxton Locks.
Yeah, we're just above the Foxton Locks and it's quite a busy place for both boats and people.
Lots of gongoozles. Most people that went past, said hello which was really nice,
Some of them offered advice which was okay, some of them told me I'd missed a bit... that's not okay
that's not okay. One person told me it looked therapeutic. They're delusional.
My recommendation is, if you've got this job to do, just don't do it.
Yeah, or if you're going to do it, don't do it where there is a lot of people walking by. Or when it is 22 degrees.
So it's the next day now we've moved the boat, and it's a lot cooler.
And I'm going to do the first coat of varnish.
and we're using Le Tonkinois which is a marine varnish.
And I'm just going to do the outsides of the doors, so that we can still close them
and I'll wait till it's a bit warmer and then do the insides.
I've already wiped them all down with suger soap. To get rid of any grease and any remaining dust
so hopefully it's all ready to go.
So it's about a week later now, and both the front and the back have had about
three coats of Le Tonkinois, and between each coat I was rubbing it down with wire
wool to try and get a smoother finish. And then bugs and bits of blossom were
landing on it between coats which was a bit annoying.
It hasn't come out the best, I've kind of realised that, because the woods quite bleached from the sun,
and quite damaged from water, all that shows through the varnish, so if I'd
wanted to have an even colour I should have probably stained it underneath
the varnish, but I didn't do that. And I guess the most important thing to us ,is
that it's now watertight, it's not going to get any more damage, and that's what
the whole point of doing it was. We're now pretty much ready to put the brass
back on, when it came off it was pretty, pretty scuffed, and I've given them a bit
of a clean but you kind of realised that we're not going to have one of those
boats that everything is shiny and neat on so, yeah, I kind of polished them so far but it's not perfect.
The insides actually came out really quite beautiful didn't they.
Do we want Michael's head in it or George's head in it? That's the choice. i don't know, it doesn't matter.
Put George's head in it, leave mine out. It's really bright we cant see.
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