maintenance and a paint alarm

Spent a couple of days last week rubbing down and repriming the paintwork on the rear deck. It had been covered in a rubberised diamond patterned anti slip mat in a nasty pale bue colour which attracted dirt so never looked right. It came off easlily with a screwdriver as a scraper/ lever, and then I was able to scrape the paint off right back to the bare metal to start again with primer etc.

We've plumped for red paint for the rear cants, and I was somewhat taken aback by the colour of the undercoat when I had opened the tin and stirred. A very garish orangey red, nothing like the colour on the outside of the tin. So now I've checked the colour of the gloss topcoat (by contacting the paint company) before I open it. Thankfully its a lot less virulent!

I've also been reminding myself of the limitations of my woodworking skill by making two brackety things on which we will rest the gangplank and poles on the boat roof. Actually they dont look so bad, but they're not as neat as a skilled person would have produced. When I've finished painting them (including some decorative diamond shapes) I'll post a photo.

The trouble with painting is all the waiting for it to dry between coats. I suppose if I were painting large areas this would be less of a problem, but for small detailed bits you do ten minutes painting then have to wait hours and hours (overnight usually) to do the next coat. If the weather is changeable it's difficult to make progress.

Next week we are taking our vinyl cratch cover back to the makers (AJ Canopies) in Braunston the have zips repaired and two rips patched. They'll do this overnight while we stay at Rick & Marilyn's nearby.

One of these days Herbie might look quite posh!