Boat Maintenance & Repair Forum

by **betty boop** » 01 Jun 2015, 09:26

Winter wasnt too kind to Betty and Ive got a lot of heavy surface rust agrovated by Salt on the engine block and some electrical components/connectors, a lot of loose paint has fallen off leaving bare metal & minor surface rust but around gaskets (not necessaryily water seals) the paint has given way to flaky oxide deposits, all surface moisture related I hope as is mostly on the throttle side (rather than manifold side)

Can anyone recommend a rust treatment and then engine paint, brush may be better than spray but its going to need to be good stuff as theres a lot of muck I wont be able to clean off.

part 2 of that will be to strip out the starter motor and do the same so may be a bit multi purpose?

by **_Ed_** » 01 Jun 2015, 09:53

Not sure about in a boat but you need to get all the salts off first. Is it feasible to jet wash the engine down with a degreaser? you can then paint straight over it.

by **betty boop** » 01 Jun 2015, 13:51

_Ed_ wrote:Not sure about in a boat but you need to get all the salts off first. Is it feasible to jet wash the engine down with a degreaser? you can then paint straight over it.

wash it off -yes, wouldnt be happy with a jet wash too many eletricals around that the blast would penitrate. I've got a high power steam clean too so was thinking about that, degrease it with gunk then steam /scrub the muck off prior to re painting.

by **Ianfs** » 01 Jun 2015, 17:08

Not sure how much room you have to play with but you need as much space as you can get. I did mine when I changed the manifolds so it was dead easy, lots of room.

I'm an advocate of Epoxy Mastic http://www.rust.co.uk/epoxy-mastic-rust-proofing-paint/c28117/ but only on certain bits, like Trailer parts or parts which you can see. Reason being, is because, it is an Epoxy Paint, it doesn't cure the same way as conventional paint by drying, it cures chemically and seals in whatever it covers, which is good. It is supposed to seal in oxidation so it can take out any oxygen and stop it. If it doesn't then oxidation takes place underneath it which might not be seen and therefore a disaster might occur as in the case of a water jacket on an engine.

Consequently I wasn't brave enough to use it on my engine so I opted for some Kurust, which is supposed to turn rusted metal ( as long as it is not flaking) into a paintable surface and then used Hammerite Smooth Black Paint.

I first tried some degreasers, 1st one was the smelly one Gunk, but that only really took off some of the muck, next was a spray type foamy one cant remember which, smelt good but was useless, then I tried Swarfega Oil & Grease Remover, but eventually went back to Paraffin which I manage to buy from Homebase in 5l plastic containers. I brushed on the Paraffin gently on all affected area's knowing that when it dried it would leave a completely grease free area and subject to rust, however when the rust did appear it was treatable.

So I treated the area with Paraffin then bought lots of cans of Brake Cleaner from Halfords and with the red tube attached cleaned off most of the grease and paraffin..........................more to come!

The bilge was easy, washing up liquid from the pound shop with a dishwashing brush attached to a piece of wood by tightly bounded electrical tape then the muck washed out with a hose through the bung hole!