petec
Joined: 26 Nov 2015 Posts: 17 Location: Russell New Zealand.
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Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 7:39 am Post subject: GB042 underside protection |
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GB 042 is now back from having its underside protected against rust.
Had it checked for rust a couple of times and had ‘it looks good’ comments prior to exporting from the U.K. and it also came through the NZ compliance testing on import.
However I live on the coast here and it will be exposed to a lot more salt air than it would have in the U.K. so I decided to get it done and opted for a four stage protection process.
The first was an abrasive media blasting getting rid of all the gunk and taking everything back to bare metal. This exposed a few problems... Fuel lines corroding along with the brackets and a number of holes in some of the other important parts. Not nice to find but very please I did.
So ....no choice....a new fuel pipe was made/fitted and all the necessary welding/repairs carried out.
Following that, the whole of the underside was galvanised - Zinc Aluminium Arc-Sprayed - where they spray a fine coating of molten zinc alloy onto the bare metal surface to act as a barrier. Apparently the same process is used on drilling platforms which only require inspection after 20 years. No drying or curing time is required and there is no risk of damage to any component.
You are left with a ‘perfect’ metalised surface for the third stage which is a high quality marine grade epoxy paint coating. The stuff they use on the underside of boats.
The forth process is a cavity waxing using a German product , KS-200, it has a wax-like consistency that leaves an elastic film on the surface once the solvents have evaporated.
All sounds over the top when compared to Waxoyl and it’s like and a bit more expensive - around the £2k for protection plus another £2k for repairs. However pleased knowing GB042 is a lot better protected and some potential nasties have been sorted.
Some before and after Photos attached with the help of James.
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