Much happier now!

[Kristal]

I am much more cheerful now that I've finally managed to get up to Woodbridge and see Crystal, who is out of the water at Robertson's for the summer. Thanks to my employers and a larger than usual hole in my pocket, getting to Suffolk for any length of time has been, and is unlikely to be, rather difficult and so I've brought home a number of spars, including her 8ft bowsprit, to be refinished here in London.

I have the time to do a really proper job on them now they are handy, and so I've begun stripping off the fittings, which I'd like to clean up too. Many of them have, at some point, been varnished over a little whilst still in position on the boat.

Does anyone know a good way of removing varnish traces from bronze or galvanised fittings, and bringing them up almost as good as new? Also, any advice particularly related to varnishing spars would be well received - I'm hoping that Coelan's flexible properties will make it ideal for making these rather tired-looking bits of timber beautiful again.

Cheers as always,

/<

 

[Peterduck]

I've always found it more difficult to keep varnish on anything that to get it off. With bronze castings you can be fairly brutal with the varnish; I would just use my heat gun and soften and scrape the stuff off. However, be very gentle with bronze if you get it hot; it becomes extremely brittle! Once it's cooled, it's OK again.

I see very little point in trying to get galvanised fittings all sparkling silver; They'll go dull again very quickly. I would paint them a pale grey, although a pal of mine painted his a deep blood-red or burgundy [I presume that you're familiar with that colour] and they looked really nice. Brunswick Green [a.k.a. British Racing Green] would not look out of place either.
Peter.

 

[Mirelle]

Removing varnish from bronze fittings - it will scrape or flake off quite easily. Use your third best screwdriver!

Likewise galvanised fittings, but go gently as the zinc coating is very soft.

You may consider getting the galvanised stuff re-galvanised if it is really rusty. You will need to make up a consignment, perhaps with someone else, to get to the weight needed for a batch.

I bought a spray can of zinc rich paint called Zinc Helle (a German product, as you will have gathered!) from EYE Ltd in Levington and I reckon it has cheered up my windlass no end, though others, notably Rollo who owns the "Brightlingsea" (and is a fully qualfied expert on the rebuilding of extremely large classic motor boats!) differ, and prefer Hammerite.

Coelan sticks really well to galvanising, and leaves it looking dark grey. It is also quite a good way to cheat at keeping bronze shiny, though personally I like dark green!

 

[cliffordpope]

Paint remover for the varnish, followed by dilute battery acid for the tarnish. I'm assuming they are off the boat, of course.

 

[cliffordpope]

I meant for the bronze of course, not galvanised.

 

[Mirelle]

er, yes! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I use kettle descaler to get tarnish off bronze - put onto this by the Woodbridge ironmonger, who said that she sells loads of it to antique dealers for this purpose.

 

[Kristal]

I was wondering about using a couple of coats of Coelan on the shiny bronze bits, actually - do you think it would be difficult to take off if I changed my mind?

Regalvanising might be a good idea, as I've removed the dolphin striker along with the bumkin: it looks as if its done a fair bit of striking and is threatening to rust. The cranse iron just looks very ropey, but I must admit I've got a hankering for a bronze one from Classic Marine to go with her bronze turnbuckles. There is surprisingly little galvanised stuff on board, and I like the sound of it going dark grey. I also like dark green but having just taken a turnbuckle out of an overnight Coca-Cola bath, I'm getting a bit of shinylust...

/<

 

[Casey]

Last week I saw someone polishing the bronze fairleads in situ on his boat with wet and dry dipped liberally into brown sauce! It seemed to work.

 

[Talbot]

If you have a small amout for re-galvanising, go to a trailer manufacturer and ask if they will include it with their stuff - they have lots of stuff galvanised and some of them are perfectly happy to include a little bit just for the cost of the galvanising. Thus saving a considerable amount of money!