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Severe rust on cabin wall junction with bow deck


cairanvanrooyen

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Today i have been working on the bow deck and removing rust with a wire wheel in preparation for rust treating and painting etc and have hit a problem.

 

Severe rust and a hole through the cabin wall, near the bow deck - see photo.

 

I know the right way to remedy this is to remove the UPVC door and have a new strip of steel welded onto the cabin wall and onto the bow deck, giving a solid seal.

 

However, I wondered if there was a product/solution, whereby I can 'lay' a two part epoxy type floor to the whole bow deck area, fill in the hole and surrounding rust and lap the epoxy up the wall, giving a new watertight deck and wall section and avoiding taking out the UPVC door.

 

Questions:

 

  1. How difficult is it to remove a large UPVC door? Are they typically screwed into the cabin or simply sealed onto the cabin steel? This sounds like a major job to me the layman.
  2. Is there a suitable epoxy type solution to do the bow deck and lap onto the wall as my sketch?

 

Thank you!!

IMG_20200901_182137.jpg

sketch.jpg

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The stuff to use is glass fibre matting and resin, the stuff that "plastic boats" are made from. You can do quite a good repair that might last a few years but you will need to grind away and treat all the rust first.

Very often a proper welding repair can be as cheap or cheaper than a bodge (especially if you cost your own time). Removing the door is likely not the biggest issue, removing lining and insulation from the front bulkhead will likely be a bigger job.

 

.................Dave 

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12 minutes ago, dmr said:

. Removing the door is likely not the biggest issue, removing lining and insulation from the front bulkhead will likely be a bigger job.

 

.................Dave 

Not if it's a Black Prince, which have a very similar door.

Once you've got the doors off and windows out, undonthe screws, the inner lining tends to fall out, and the frame can be lifted out quite easily!!

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10 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Not if it's a Black Prince, which have a very similar door.

Once you've got the doors off and windows out, undonthe screws, the inner lining tends to fall out, and the frame can be lifted out quite easily!!

It is an ex Black Prince, made by Pinder in 2003. See photo of the doors from inside.

 

I can get the doors off easily, but how do the windows come out?

IMG_20200901_194656.jpg

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1 minute ago, cairanvanrooyen said:

It is an ex Black Prince, made by Pinder in 2003. See photo of the doors from inside.

 

I can get the doors off easily, but how do the windows come out?

IMG_20200901_194656.jpg

You may have to break the trim to get them out, from the inside however, the trim is still available.

 

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Matty is spot on. Lots of boats have built in cupboards there, or even a stove in a tiled fireplace. You have good access so get the doors out, lining off and get it welded. If you do the dirty nasty prep, cutting/grinding the rust away back to good steel then a welder will fix that in no time.

 

...............Dave

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14 minutes ago, matty40s said:

You may have to break the trim to get them out, from the inside however, the trim is still available.

 

Do you have experience of doing this?

 

I don't know where to start removing the trim to get the windows out. Do I start trying to pry the trim apart at the 45 degree angle from the inside, as illustrated below? Or somewhere else?

 

IMG_20200901_194656~2.jpg

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12 hours ago, cairanvanrooyen said:

Do I start trying to pry the trim apart at the 45 degree angle from the inside, as illustrated below? Or somewhere else?

Be careful to identify what's trim and what's a welded plastic frame joint. The bit you've marked looks like the latter to me, although it's hard to see.  Trim is usually obviously stuck on afterwards (often with superglue or silicone - the first leaves scars when removed, the second can be removed cleanly). 

Taking the glazing units out of the side windows will allow you to see how the frame is fixed - in buildings it's normally with a fixing like a Fisher or concrete screw through the frame. I fancy your frame is T shaped, to include the door frame and the side windows as a single unit. If it is, the step after identifying how it's fixed will be to take the doors off, so the frame you lift out will be comparatively light.

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Severe rust indeed. Was the deck covered in carpet or something? Actually that photo is a warning to what can happen under the floor of a boat. I have seen wheelbarrow loads (literally) of scale coming out of an ancient barge, after it was all cleaned up the boat had pinholes all over the bottom, in fact the owner decided to cut the old bottom and frames out and replace with entirely new steel.

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1 minute ago, Bee said:

Severe rust indeed. Was the deck covered in carpet or something? Actually that photo is a warning to what can happen under the floor of a boat. I have seen wheelbarrow loads (literally) of scale coming out of an ancient barge, after it was all cleaned up the boat had pinholes all over the bottom, in fact the owner decided to cut the old bottom and frames out and replace with entirely new steel.

Indeed, the previous owners installed a rubber mat over the whole bow deck, trapping moisture below and preventing water draining. Now I am trying to remedy their mess.

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29 minutes ago, cairanvanrooyen said:

Indeed, the previous owners installed a rubber mat over the whole bow deck, trapping moisture below and preventing water draining. Now I am trying to remedy their mess.

You would be amazed how many people ruin their decks by doing this.

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4 minutes ago, matty40s said:

You would be amazed how many people ruin their decks by doing this.

Astroturf is also quite common, and a few people do the full length of the boat roof in it.

 

I foolishly left a bag of coal on our roof over summer, intended to move it from place to pace but forgot, paint has already started to fail and needed repairs.

 

We have a rubber mat on the front deck to improve grip, especially for the dog. It is almost always wet under it. The deck is done in epoxy but I still lift the mat every few weeks, clean and inspect.

 

..................Dave

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Personally I don't use any of the so called fancy marine paint brands. I use vehicle synthetic enamel coach paint from vehicle paint refinishing suppliers. My roof has the old Valflash synthetic enamel on it, Vauxhall Wavecrest blue, an old Viva colour, still good after 15 years, had coal bags on it, a Gokart tyre supporting a solar panel for 3 years and no sign of any paint failure at all.

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