Corroded washer for windscreen grab rail

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doraymefa

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Can anyone help me source new washers for this sort of windscreen grab rail? I estimate that they have a diameter of about 35mm. They are about 16 years old and I suspect the aluminium has reacted with the stainless steel screw holding it in place. I need four of them as I will refit both grab rails if I can find a supplier of the washers.
Thanks

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doraymefa said:
Hello Stork III, thanks for replying and yes it is HR. I have sent a request to them this evening. However someone out there might know where HR get them from?
Regards
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They look rather poorly made! An insult to an amateur to called them amateurish. A small engineering company or anyone with a small lathe in their garage should be able to make those for you.

If the screw is stainless then making them from stainless might be a good idea.

You dont say where you are .. There might be a nearby forumite who could make them.
 
Thanks to all for responses. I suspect Transworld will come up trumps. I intend to try a little vinegar first on the corroded mess and then good old WD40 before trying the stainless steel screw.
 
Stork_III said:
I am surprised at your suggestion from a fellow HR owner. He like me, and I suspect yo, would like to keep his bought lloking good not bodged.
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Generally, HR quality is good, but they have had some strange corrosion issues, especially with windscreen-related items. I've had to replace the fixing rails on my screen because the originals corroded away dramatically. I don't think replacing an alloy washer with a stainless one counts as a "bodge".
 
pvb said:
I don't think replacing an alloy washer with a stainless one counts as a "bodge".
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To my mind a bodge (as opposed to a botch) means to affect a job or repair with the materials to hand. The result may be good or it may not be: there is nothing intrinsic in 'bodge' to say either way. Since the OP evidently has neither ally nor stainless washers to hand, he cannot yet bodge.

But to return to reality, so far as I can tell from the photo, the problem with using a stainless washer is that it simply exchanges galvanic corrosion between fastener and fixing for corrosion between washer and what looks like an ally extrusion. Since the surface areas are greater, the galvanic effects would probably be more pronounced. What is clear is that HR didn't get it right, but then neither do most spar manufacturers. In fact it's difficult to get right, unless an ally washer and fastener is used (trade-off: less strong); or perhaps a stainless washer on a nylon backing washer. But what does the fastener screw into: steel or aluminium?
 
macd said:
To my mind a bodge (as opposed to a botch) means to affect a job or repair with the materials to hand. The result may be good or it may not be: there is nothing intrinsic in 'bodge' to say either way. Since the OP evidently has neither ally nor stainless washers to hand, he cannot yet bodge.
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Botch (verb) means "carry out (a task) badly or carelessly". Botch (noun) means "a bungled task". Bodge (verb) means "make or repair (something) badly or clumsily". the OED does not list bodge as a noun, only as a verb

But to return to reality, so far as I can tell from the photo, the problem with using a stainless washer is that it simply exchanges galvanic corrosion between fastener and fixing for corrosion between washer and what looks like an ally extrusion. Since the surface areas are greater, the galvanic effects would probably be more pronounced. What is clear is that HR didn't get it right, but then neither do most spar manufacturers. In fact it's difficult to get right, unless an ally washer and fastener is used (trade-off: less strong); or perhaps a stainless washer on a nylon backing washer. But what does the fastener screw into: steel or aluminium?
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I take it the washer is on one side of the screen and the grab rail the other so not themselves in contact It would be wise to fit the stainless screw with some barium chromate (Duralac) paste between it and the aluminium. Maybe TefGel as that is not so messy to use.
 
It may be that the "aluminium" washer corroded due to salt rather than being in contact with a stainless screw due to it not being anodised. This can be avoided by ensuring the washer is anodised or otherwise protected from salt corrosion. (I say "aluminium" as it is most likely an aluminium alloy)
 
Yes Vic, it's no surprise that the OED has it that way, although there's certainly historic usage (esp in boating circles) of 'bodge' being more like I defined it. Equally, bodge is most definitely widely used as a noun. Wm Shakespeare, for what it's worth used botch and bodge interchangeably, but then surviving documents show that he also spelled his name in at least three different ways (none of which was 'Shakespeare').

Whichever's the case, I wonder why bodgers got such a reputation when all they did was make chair legs and similar turned items. Or maybe such bodgers got their name from their bodging rather than the other way round. (If you want a weird one, Thomas Crapper supposedly gave his name to the flush toilet, despite a) not inventing it (he invented the ballcock); and b) being only 10 years old when 'cr*p' was first recorded for bodily waste.)

At which point I should perhaps apologise for the effluence of my drift and evacuate from this thread.
 
doraymefa said:
Thanks to all for responses. I suspect Transworld will come up trumps. I intend to try a little vinegar first on the corroded mess and then good old WD40 before trying the stainless steel screw.
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Forget WD40. Use Plusgas or similar. Tightening the screw slightly make help undo, make sure you use the correct size and style of screwdriver, not philips and it should unscrew with a bit of back and forwards twist. I have not had the problem on my current boat 10 years old or my previous HR31 16 years old when replaced. The washer is in a protected area inside the screen, so should not be too exposed to salt water.
 
To make these from stainless or ally is a very quick job. If anyone wants some made PM me. My initial thought when I saw the picture was to have a thin plast washer ( about .5 mm or 20" thick) between the ally washer ans the glass to help seal against any water ingress. If you want to use ally, have a another plastic bush in the hole to seperate it from the ally washer.
Better still a "top hat" made of plastic with a hole to allow the screw to pass through but to fit inside the ally/stainless washer and the thin washer to help seal the glass, again a very quick job.
 
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