The Good News, I Don’t Have A Screw Loose. But They Are Corroded .

Nasty

There is only one thing that comes close to a calm boat ride for therapy, and that’s an afternoon in the barn with the music one and just puttering about. This weekend was partially spent in the Woody Barn working on WECATCHEM. Wow, say that three times fast.

Cleaning up

WECATCHEM Inda house!

Anyway, behind the Wicker Sisters I seem to get a lot of spray and don’t clean up enough, so as I started taking all the fun of summer out of WECATCHEM, I noticed that all the screws had some issues.

Yuck

Ugh, one of the downsides of brackish water I suppose. And around the engine hatch, the hinges had some gunk happening. So off it all came. one screw at a time. A slow process and certainly tedious, since one false move and 15 coats of Katzs finish is scratched.

Very Careful.

Even the metal trim was wonky.

Crank up the buffing wheel!

Perfecto. A tad bright, I like the darker screws. But its clean

EEEESH!

BAM, Hello Sparkles! Stainless buffed, screws cleaned and hinges all polished

Playing with a new lens. I call this,  ” Righty Tighty” A story of a loose screw and a deck. We all know how it ends.

Blow these up as art in your barn. Actually not a bad idea.

Graves Plating after one year of salt water use. Looks brand new! Do it right the first time!

The good news is that no scratches, the bad news, I can clean those screws all I can, but its gonna happen again, and again. But worth cleaning because it looks so good when done right.

All together

Man that Katzs Marina finish is so strong and crisp.

Well, there ya have it. Its winter and photos of buffed screws is about as good as it gets. maybe one day we can do a study on the art of the spark plug. Wait, that’s actually a cool idea. Anyone got any cool spark plug shots?

I call this , “Sunset Spark”

She for sure thinks I have a screw loose.

19 replies
  1. m-fine
    m-fine says:

    I was also going to ask if there was something you could clear coat with to protect them better. Otherwise, keep up with the post ride washdowns anytime you are near salt.

  2. Dan T
    Dan T says:

    You made your boat to damn perfect. Now your stuck with struggling to keep her that way. At some point you’ll have to let it go and learn how to enjoy patina again.

  3. jim g
    jim g says:

    You can buy new bronze oval R&P screws and send them to Graves for plating and they will hold up as could as your hardware is.

  4. Greg W
    Greg W says:

    ….or you could go stainless and buff to a nickel like finish and save your brass for Clayton, Tahoe, or whatever.

  5. Brian Robinson
    Brian Robinson says:

    Top Notch Fasteners has some sizes of oval head Frearson in stainless now. Your rear bulkhead would be a good application for them.

  6. Troy in ANE
    Troy in ANE says:

    I bought a can of EEZOX to try to protect the hardware on AB, as m-fine recommended, but have not her in the water since.

  7. Dick Dow
    Dick Dow says:

    I’m glad you posted that last shot of the Boatress holding the spark plug – I was getting worried about your choice of fingernail polish…

    I’m with Brian on this one – and will be getting on the Top Notch site to see what they have. We’re in the salt often and stainless fasteners are the best way to go!

  8. Randy
    Randy says:

    Living here in the Pacific NW with the salt water environment I just go over all my chrome (even screw heads) with liquid super hard shell Turtle Wax to keep everything polished and looking ‘sparkeley’. It leaves a protective coating on the chrome, similar to what it does for the paint finish on your car. Just don’t spread it around liberally on your varnish surfaces. All my chrome still looks like new after 10 years, even the ‘screw heads’.

    It would be nearly impossible to do it all at once on a 42′ Martinique, so I just do it a section at a time (for 30 min. or so) whenever I am futzing around the boat. Everything gets done once a year.

    This was my job as a kid in the ’50’s & ’60’s on my parents cruisers, so I’ve had a lot of practice.

      • Randy
        Randy says:

        … yea Troy, the Martinique will not fit in the garage so I had to set the bottle on somethin’.

        ’59 Berkeley was handy for this shot — at 10′ x 4′ it handily fits in the garage!

  9. Kentucky Wonder
    Kentucky Wonder says:

    Playing with a new lens….got yourself a 100mm Macro? Shooting lots of frames to get one focused on just the right place? Realizing how unsteady you really are when trying to hand-hold a lens with a 0.25-inch depth of field?

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