Katona

A narrowboat renovation project by Nick Goodall.

Magnum grinder opus

30th July 2023

What a week! It started strong with 8 hours on the angle grinder — sans injury — de-rusting section 4; the stern, the finale, my magnum grinder opus:

Stern rust removed Dirty Nick after rust removal

And with that done, the boat is officially no longer a rusty shell!

As Sean Parker would say…

Drop the 'rusty.' Just 'shell.' It's cleaner.

Following that I washed it all down and hoovered up the rusty dust, ready for painting over the next few days. On Friday I finished the 4th and final coat of primer, and buoy does it look wonderful:

Stern primer coats Stern primer coats looking forward

The unpainted parts are where I need to weld — and there are many of them — but I need mains power to get on with that, which I shall find at a marina in the next week or two.

And remember that window I broke last week?! Well I ordered 2 replacements; one of the others was slightly the wrong size, so when in Rome, etc. On Friday I left the boat for a few days, and will return next week to do the final 2 coats on the stern section and start on the final preparations for insulating!

Until next Sunday,

- Nick

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