Repainting

I visited Rose Narrowboats yesterday to see progress as our boat was prepared for re-painting.  The preparations are well under way.

The mains input socket was fitted in the roof at the side of the hatch when the boat was new but it kept filling up with water and that wasn’t wise. Sometime ago we had it moved to a better location near the rear door and the hole was fitted with a blanking plate, seen removed and upside down to the left of the photo.  The hole is now being filled properly, with the circular piece on the right about to be welded in.  Once finished it will be invisible under the new paint which will be continuous grey non-slip over the former socket.

The posts for the rear seat had been straightened and welded back into place so they were upright again.

This earlier shot shows the left hand rear seat pushed forward after it had been struck from behind by another boat.

All the window frames have been removed ready for repainting.

Here’s one of the frames out of the boat.

The seal between the window frames and the boat has lasted but wouldn’t have lasted much longer.  There were a few minor leaks where water was just starting to get inside the boat and running down behind the panelling in the boat.  It would have been un-noticed there for a while until the damp had started to cause serious damage so I’m glad we had the work done now.

A lot of the existing paintwork should be stripped back by the next time I visit.