Ex- Member

I reckon I've only bought the rubbish one then

I've bought a lot of duct tape over the years and I can't really say some has been noticeably better than others. I think the problem you could be having is more to to with cleaning the surface properly prior to applying tape. If old tape glue residues remain it will effect the performance of newly applied tape. In addition there's a lot of oil around in an engine room which will get everywhere over time. So a good clean with spirit might help newer tape adhere. That's what I've used on insulation board, brilliant stuff!

Agreed ref primer, I already said it will adhere over new primer. The fact it will stick though doesn't make it the correct process. I don't know who told you to prime prior to body filler. I've never seen this done and I trained as a car sprayer for 3 years and worked a further 2 years in the industry. I don't see the relevance of porosity either as who would leave filler and bear metal open to the elements in the first place. Generally when I've applied filler it's been rubbed down and primed in very quick time. I don't know why others are of the same idea unless it's some kind of specialist primer or their mixing up filler with Primer stopper which is applied on to primer.

Very few people will be able to afford a proper job though with solder though.

That's not correct. Body filler is designed to adhere to bear metal, it also likes to be applied to a heavily abraded area ground with 40 grit grinding disc. The area to be repaired should be ground out as should any rust, dents are repaired and fully ground and all paint removed to be done properly. Filler over any existing paint to fix rust dents or dints is nothing more than a bodge. In addition the chemicals in body fillers can adversely affect any existing applied paints.

Most body fillers will adhere to paint. When you smooth out the body filler though you'll rub off the majority of primer already applied, hence my comment a waste of paint. You only need body filler for deep abrasive marks or dents/dints. If the surface is quite good, cellulose stopper might do the job. At the end of the day all these rust inhibitors end up hit and miss, if you completely grind the rust away, then there's nothing to come back, what you grind out replace with filler, solder filling is the ultimate fix though but very skilled work. Body filler applied properly should last 10 years +.

Car body type fillers are designed to bond to bare steel, they don't need a primer prior to application it's simply a waste of paint. The filler needs priming with the steel, the primer helps fill the abrasive marks made in the filler when it was rubbed down, it also helps fill the pinholes.

Hi there Get some sugar soap, give the gritty area a good scrub you can then paint.

More tinkering The sucker on our sat dish has always been useless and I recently fitted it to our roof storage tube frame, but this was ended up a bit in the way and not movable. So when I came across one of my Dad's old aerial mag mounts from his radio ham days, I thought I would put it to good use. It was a bit rusty so I stripped it back and repainted it with some Red aerosol paint left over from another job and applied some new rubber to the base. We also use an Omnimax aerial for Freeview which when a signal is available picks up a perfect picture with no adjustment hassles, so I decided I would make a dual purpose mount for both aerials. I had some off cut circles of plywood 30mm thick so rubbed one down and painted it. I removed the central threaded aerial connection from the mag mount and used an M8 S/S bolt and castle nut to fix the ply circle securely to the mag mount. I then fitted the sat dishes stem originally set in the sucker to same size hole drilled in the plywood disc. The slightly thicker part of the stem was then set in some Nylon engineering block bolted to the ply disc with M5 S/S set screws. An M6 thread was then tapped through the side of the Nylon engineering block and a small threaded knob screwed in so to tighten against the stem to hold the dish still when set in place. I've set the sat dish vertical so to tune in, it just needs to swivel to SE to get a signal, this worked well when mounted on the roof storage tubes and will do so if I mount the dish to the centre of the roof. The Omnimax is also set into Nylon block and tapped through both the Nylon and ply disc with M12 stainless steel studding. A long nut connects to the stem of the Omnimax which is also set on a M12 rod. This now can be either stay attached to the mag mount or unscrewed and moved to a telescopic pole if required or another mounting option on the roof storage tubes. I could also use the M12 stem & Long nut to mount other stuff as well or even fit another. It's a 7 inch diameter mount and gives a really strong fixing. I'm well pleased with it as it's all made from left over materials from the boat build so cost nothing but time.

The best approach is to grind out bad rust areas with a 40 grit grinding disc. Then use a quality car body filler to fill the ground areas. Rub the filler down with dry production paper 80g using a rubbing block until smooth and level with the existing steel. Then prime all bare metal and filler with plenty of primer. It might be necessary to fill again with fine primer stopper to cope with pinholes & abrasive scratches depending on the type of finish you want, fine stopper is basically very thick primer applied with a spreader, you can buy it in tubes like toothpaste. Fine stopper & primer is best rubbed down with wet & dry paper 200 to 300 grit. You're now ready to apply undercoats and top coat.

We use 2 x single duvet covers instead of one large double, so no fighting over a duvet and easy to change cover even in a n/b. We don't have what I would consider as horrors as you list. We have a compost loo, no hassles. We have Wellies for mud. We have 3 gas bottles, never run out and can switch bottles in seconds. Get an Omnimax, we have Sat dish too as back up. We struggle to think of anything horrible with regard to living on a boat Yet

The phone requirement for sky is only for the first year, after that you can use sky anywhere using the sky box and card as we did for several months, you'll not be able to sign up to sky either without an address and phone line.

Wow that was a quick response. Thanks all I now have the general gist of them and might well go for some. Another 2 quick Q's can you step on them without causing damage? And can we use our existing Brass liners without interfering with the UFO mounts?

We would much prefer the flying saucer type roof vents to replace the Brass mushroom vents all 5 of them. I'm not sure of their design only having seen them fitted to roofs. How do they actually work? Also can you fit these directly over mushroom vent holes, and I'm assuming the fixing holes would be automatically covered as well. I've seen this S/S one on e-bay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ECS-STAINLESS-STEEL-TANNOY-STYLE-VENTILATOR-BOAT-ROOF-VENT-YACHT-BOAT-FISHING-/370807123922 Is the clear area glass or plastic? We would like ones in S/S Chrome is too shiny, anyone know who makes these?

Having now been living on the water for 10 months, It becomes clear that lots of things need tweaking or changing. We've spent quite some time fitting and fixing stuff that makes life a wee bit easier. There's a lot of things to do as well, quite a list in fact of little improvements here and there that will reduce storage issues amongst other things. Rigged up a sling to hold hand held Hoover inside a cupboard door. Fitted various hooks & brackets for hanging things up. Fitted security bolts to sliding hatch. Fitted small rubber bumper to stop sliding hatch banging against back plate when fully opening. The main job though has been revamping the Dog box. I had previously done work on this hatch with regard to replacing the steel centre hinge which rusted badly and seized, so we replaced with some heavy stainless steel door hinges which have worked superbly since being fitted, an Oak centre beam section was also fitted to stop the lids sagging in the middle. This work was done some years ago though and the hatch area had become rather tatty over that time and was not very secure. So the revamp has resulted in a very secure hatch using Brass latches. The hinged centre section has been covered in some Oak and rubber strip to hide the hatch drip well, it also covers the hinges gap which was equal to 2 x mushroom vents worth of ventilation, covering this over will save a lot of heat loss in winter. The sides were originally finished in Oak, but we decided to paint the sides the same colour as the lid to make the area brighter and reflect more light into the boat, surprising how well it works. There's just a Black Neoprene rubber strip to be fitted to the lid edges which will finish it off nicely.

Well it's perfect tinkering weather so we've done loads of small but useful tweaks here and there to make things just that bit easier. Rigged up a sling to hold hand held Hoover inside a cupboard door. Fitted various hooks & brackets for hanging things up. Fitted security bolts to sliding hatch. Fitted small rubber bumper to stop sliding hatch banging against back plate when fully opening. The main job though has been revamping the Dog/Pigeon box. I had previously done some work on this hatch with regard to replacing the steel centre hinge which rusted badly over time being unused and completely seized up. So we cut out and removed the rusty hinge and replaced with some heavy stainless steel door hinges instead which have worked superbly since being fitted. An Oak centre strut section was also fitted to stop the lids sagging in the middle as they are really heavy being 4mm steel with a good quality ply inset and of course the 10.5 inch brass portholes. This work was done some years ago though and the hatch area had become rather tatty over that time and was not very secure. So the revamp has resulted in a very secure hatch using some Brass latches. The hinged centre section has been clad in some Oak strip which has been rebated to accept some rubber strip slotted in to the rebated edge of the Oak where it fits to the lid. The Oak is screwed to the lid with M5 S/S screws, as you tighten, this grips the rubber set in to the rebated Oak forming a flexible bridge over the gap. This will hide the hatches centre strut/drip well, it also covers the hinges gaps which were equal to 2 x mushroom vents worth of ventilation. Covering this over will save a lot of heat loss through next winter. The tube like rubber in the centre has enough flexibility to be able to open each lid by 6 inches per side, so an ample opening for some cool breeze to get in through summer, especially with the side doors which are located below the hatch. The sides were originally finished in Oak and varnished, but we decided to paint the sides the same colour as the lid to make the area brighter and reflect more light into the boat, surprising how well it works. There's just a Black Neoprene rubber strip to be fitted to the the top of the painted Oak sides, the lids will sit on the Neoprene making an air tight seal as wall as finishing the whole thing off nicely.

I had a feeling they wouldn't be cheap, In fact I thought they would have been dearer than that. They have to be cast of course, drilled through and polished and all done by hand I believe.

Primer first 2 coats, I prefer Red Oxide primers. 2 undercoat, any thing decent, I did use some Dulux undercoat recently and was impressed but it was pricey too though. Previously I've used International undercoat which is a good all rounder. It's also A primer undercoat so could bypass primer, personally I would prime though. I found this particular undercoat very easy to brush paint and you can pick it up pretty cheap if you hunt around e-bay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/International-Exterior-Primer-Undercoat-2-5-Litre-Grey-/141300622686?pt=UK_DIY_Material_Paint_Varnish_MJ&hash=item20e62c655e

Well I never feet I still prefer niblets How much are they out of interest? I haven't ever lost one yet though.

We have the Brass versions, we've purchased all sorts from Pro-cast and everything has been good quality.

Doubling battery bank might cause more problems than it solves. Keeping a bank that size in a good SOC through winter would be difficult. Add to that additional cost of batteries and fitting. It's always a compromise it seems, we feel we have about the right balance. 700a BB 740w Solar the batteries through the summer are a lot of the time at a full SOC we do have excess energy and it is tempting to get more batteries, but as mentioned in the winter we're glad we don't have a big battery bank to keep charged.

They are expensive but you get a 5 year no quibble warranty, and there's all sorts of data options and clever gadgetry. It records what is does basically and you can look back on any day of the year or beyond and glean solar input/output data. We've previously posted this data on the forum, it can be useful to plan your future solar requirements. £425 is a bargain for the 60a, we paid over £550 last year, but appreciated it is a lot of dosh, but you do get what you pay for IMO taking in to consideration the warranty. TBH I wouldn't purchase a second. If we add 400w a 30a charger will suffice and costing under £130 it would be madness spending £425 on another Outback. Having said that I'm sometimes go mad LOL

WOW what a bargain. I recall paying ball park £550 for the FM 60 and that was a cheap deal at the time from Spain. I knew these would drop in price eventually not in time for our set up though. Looks like we could we'll end up with 2 now as we're considering another 400w of flexi panel to give a boost for winter and an Outback at that price is extremely tempting. That's usually the quickest quickest way to waste good money LOL

Have you read the sellers feedback ??????? Go to Bimble solar, pay a reasonable price for a product that will work.