Scorpion 562 refurb.

[solentgal]

I just thought I would share the progress of our Scorpion with everyone. We bought her earlier in the year, but delayed work due to possible house move as mentioned on here some time ago (For those of you who were taking an interest, we couldn't sell the house, Lynne started looking for work back here, but now we have had serious homophobic nonsense from some of the local lads, so not sure what to do...so Lynne still in Bristol, and I carry on here for now!)
Anyway, back on topic, the Scorpion had been a bit bodged by a young lad......repaired with bits of exterior ply, steel nails, bathroom grout (unbelievable!) and part painted with household emulsion/silk

However, on closer inspection, she is actually pretty sound, and will be afloat for many years yet! I took the plunge and bought 2 sheets of decent marine ply (very reasonable price too) as I also have to re-deck the Europa Moth, and do some repairs on the Y.W. Pram, and started cutting out the bad bits and stripping paint. All very straight forward, apart from the emulsion paint.
It was actually seeing a comment re emulsion paint on someone elses thread on here (Jollyboat?) that prompted me to post this.....I doubt it's a common problem (can't be that many silly folk around, surely) but I have found that soaking a piece of carpet and draping it over the emulsion overnight softens it enough to scrape......works better if heavily keyed/scored first to allow penetration. I also found that if heated gently when damp, it goes a bit elastic, and can be peeled to a certain extent.
I hope no-one else has this problem, but you never know!

Heres one pic of the horrible patch as I took it apart:



If you're interested there are more pics at:

http://s1177.photobucket.com/albums/x341/solentgal/

More as and when I get stuff done!

[kfz]

Good luck SG, Not sure whats worse neglect or abuse. Neglect probably, I guess any sort of coating is better than nothing.

Is the hot air gun not effective on the emulsion?


Kev

[Pat]

Pressure washing can also be very effective, especially when unintentional - I have a turquoise/light blue/navy/white Lark in a blotchy pattern where various layers have washed off

[solentgal]

Ah...never thought to try my pressure washer.....bit late now, nearly all gone....I can't believe I didn't think of trying it.....there was something on the back of my mind all the time....think that may have been what it was ....doh!
The heat gun worked to a certain extent if the deck was soaked first and heated gently.....it was then possible to peel bits off, but over all it seems scoring, soaking and scraping in short bursts is the most effective. I did a bit more this morning, and hoping to finish off tomorrow and then move on to start the more interesting work....

[roger]

Hi Sami,

I have always liked scorpions, I guess its the similarity to Hornets. I would be careful with pressure washers on wood, my father in law took a pressure washer to a set of woodne garden furniture and it came up beautifully. However it also brought lots of splinters out of the grain leaving it quite damaged. I also used one on the wooden bits on the minisprint and that had exactlythe same effect.
I suppose you have to weigh up the amount of sanding you have to do to tidy up the wood against the amount of blod sweat and tears you are prepared to put into removing the paint.

Anyway looking forward to seeing the scorp in the flesh.

[solentgal]

Hi Roger,
Don't worry, I've had the same experience re wood and pressure washers....so I won't try it now I've nearly finished the emulsion stripping. My first race when I was about 13 (as crew) was in a very early Scorpion, hence this purchase......pretty boats and nice and light too...makes it a bit easier for us girlies,

[Michael Brigg]

Pressure washing can also be very effective, especially when unintentional - I have a turquoise/light blue/navy/white Lark in a blotchy pattern where various layers have washed off

Emulsion paint is basically Polyvinyl Acetate so any strong hydrolysing agent will do. Bases are better than acids.

Sugar soap, (Gentle)(Let it soak in, or possibly Mr Muscle oven cleaner might be effective, especially if given time to react. I recently saw a paragraph in "Classic boat" magazine, noting that Oven cleaner can also restore grey wood. I will post the reference when I can.

If you want to go heavy, then Caustic Soda base stripper, such as used for removing Antifouling from fibreglass, (NB the Fibreglass, Non-organic type) will almost certainly be effective, but does tend to lift the grain.

Be VERY careful with caustic soda to wear protection and especially Eye protection. Splashes can blind/scar the cornea!! ( And rinse afterward with masses of water.)

[solentgal]

Thanks for that Michael.......managed to do it with a mixture of patience, water and gentle heat in the end......didn't take too long either, just working round the boat in sequence, a bit like stripping wallpaper!
She's now upside down in the garage awaiting some more stripping.....proper paint this time....and then she'll get laid up for a while so I can continue stripping the other two boats.......do all the prep now, and cut timber etc, and then do all the temperature dependant stuff in the spring.......a plan of sorts (cunning or otherwise, I'm not sure!)

[chrismartin3583]

If you need any bits give me a shout, i've just stripped 483 and still have the mast, boom, pole, rudder assembly and tiller available.

[solentgal]

Thanks Chris........probably ok for parts at present thanks....came complete and all in good order apart from the missing bits of hull! Just needs repairs and paint......stripped half the hull on the outside now, and all looking pretty good

[solentgal]

The sun's out and she's back on my work trolley, stripped of paint now and ready to start repairs.

The ugly hole in the pic at the top of the thread is the first job, and straight away there's the same complication that vagabond61 found......ie different ply thicknesses between imperial and metric.

The bottom appears to be 5/16ths (8mm?) and I have a sheet of what is supposed to be 4mm ply, which seems to be 4.5mm in reality and a sheet of 6mm. Having played around with some scraps offered up in situ, I've come to the conclusion that a laminated patch of 2 x 4.5mm will be around 9mm+ which would be an ugly repair.

My best solution so far is to strip one of the patch pieces of one laminate layer and epoxy it in position with the spoiled side attached to the other patch piece, thus keeping the grain in the right direction on the inside and outside of the finished patch, and the (potentially) uneven surface hidden. If I were to just fair the finished patch in with a sander from 9mm, the surface would have grain going the wrong way (unless I glue the patch together with the grains at 90' to each other initially, and take the chance that the sanded end product left the grain correct, but the surface would never be perfect anyway)

This must be a common problem, so I wondered if anyone else has any tricks to try?

I was going to start on her today, but will leave it a couple of days and get a new addition to the fleet (Otter 465, thanks to Alan ) ready for the first sail of the season tomorrow..........any excuse huh?

[JimC]

This must be a common problem, so I wondered if anyone else has any tricks to try?

I've certainly taken a layer or so off pieces of ply to get a piece down to a specific thickness. Do as much as you can with edged tools rather than a sander to save on dust I reckon... Its not really any different to adding a couple of veneers to a piece of ply:-)

[trebor]

Hi Sami, Woodys never cease to amaze me, I have seen pictures of your blue boat in another thread of yours, when I see these woody refurbs I always want to reach for a box of matches, but then the beautiful swan appears from the ugly duckling and I think I would like one (finished not a refurb ) unfortunately I have no facilities to do winter re-paints and re-varnishes. Rob.

[kfz]

My best solution so far is to strip one of the patch pieces of one laminate layer and epoxy it in position with the spoiled side attached to the other patch piece, thus keeping the grain in the right direction on the inside and outside of the finished patch, and the (potentially) uneven surface hidden. If I were to just fair the finished patch in with a sander from 9mm, the surface would have grain going the wrong way (unless I glue the patch together with the grains at 90' to each other initially, and take the chance that the sanded end product left the grain correct, but the surface would never be perfect anyway)

This must be a common problem, so I wondered if anyone else has any tricks to try?

I

SG,
Yea I did it quite recently. Use the router to mill down the ply to one layer then epoxied it in with some pins to hold it tight then filled the edge ( I didnt bother going overboard making the patch fit, but I guess you could) and then sanded it down.







Done it in other places too, Saves on epoxy and Im a big fan of replacing like for like.



Sorry showing off now withi my transom and new rubbing strip

Kev