Waxoyl or Smoothrite?

[monkeyhanger]

Just aft of the gas locker on my boat, under the front deck, I have a storage area for coal, steel ballast and general junk. It's about 18 inches front to back and is the full width of the boat. It's accessed from the gas locker lid.

At the bottom of the locker, which is steel, I have wooden slats which rest on polystyrene foam, and the ballast etc. rests on these. When I fitted out the boat I painted this locker with Smoothrite which has lasted well for many years, apart from on the bottom of the locker, where rust has got under the paint causing some of it to lift.

 

I've removed most of the old Smoothrite by scraping, wire brush and Nitromors. My intention now is to give it a coat of Vactan to kill the rust, and then apply either a couple of coats of Smoothrite, or possibly, Waxoyl.

I'm tending towards Waxoyl as the bottom of the locker gets wet when the boat is underway, but there are drainholes which allow it to empty again when stopped. Plus it's easy to see if any more rust should form and I can whack a bit more on if necessary.

 

I'd appreciate any opinions as to the suitability of the above coatings, or any recommendations for alternatives.

[bottle]

I would use bitumen or one of its substitutes.

[The Pipe]

I would use 2 pack epoxy coal tar. Waxoil does not seem to stay in place like it used to, no idea about Smoothrite.

[monkeyhanger]

I would use bitumen or one of its substitutes.

I did consider that originally, but went for white smoothrite instead as it looked cleaner and any leaks, drips or rust would show more readily. (A white coal bunker? Yes, I know.)

Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

[trackman]

You might try SeaJet or similar 2 part epoxy primer.

I did our gas locker with it 2 years ago on the advice of Dave, the painter at Sileby Mill. It seems to be lasting well despite sitting below water quite a bit.

[David Schweizer]

You will have a job finding any Smoothrite (which used to be very good) in the shops nowadays. The name changed to Hammerite Smooth years ago, about the same time as Finnegans were bought out and the new manufacturers changed the fomula.

 

About seven years ago, I managed to get a litre can of the old Smoothrite in a discontinued colour through our local paint merchants and used it to paint the engine box on our boat, and it has stood up to oil, water and heat very well, but nowadays would use Rustoleum.

[George94]

Try barge grease, aka bilge grease, a fiendish Dutch concoction available from EC Smith of Luton. AKA ECS Marine.

 

You won't find it on their website, but they will order some if they don't have stock.

 

All self-respecting Dutch barges have their hulls coated with this (on the inside).