steel boat repairs...

[vishnuleela]

hi, i have some questions regarding steel boats, as there is a cheap empty hull near my home. it has nothing in it, just empty hull, mast and sails.

im thinking this could make a simple spacious cheap very seaworthy boat. so...

1) when repairing steel or making additions, does the steel you add for patches etc need to be sandblasted too? as in normal sheet steel that rusts easier added onto a hull thats previously sandblasted are the patches gonna deteriorate quickly? getting rid of seacocks n putting patches etc

2) what will happen if i just weld structures inside and out and just paint over them from this normal unblasted steel? stanchions of L plate etc.

thats enough questions to start with.... thanks

[toodleoo]

Just grind whatever you are patching with to bright medal and prime immediately. If you paint over unprimed steel you will have big problems down the road.

[conachair]

This is an excellent resource..

https://www.amazon.com/Metal-boat-ma.../dp/B0070QRME4

Patching would be best with blasted steel to remove the mill scale. If you get it direct from a large supplier then they might be able to do this for you and laser cut to size.

[boden36]

Just remember that the hull is the cheapest part of the boat. Unless it is very good and requires little work you are unlikely to end up ahead.

Regards,
Richard.

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by boden36

Just remember that the hull is the cheapest part of the boat. Unless it is very good and requires little work you are unlikely to end up ahead.

Regards,
Richard.

+1 Good used boats are so cheap at the moment that building from a bare hull doesn't make much sense in most cases. The hull is the simple, cheap part of the build...

But to amswer your question, it is pretty easy to weld up seacock fittings and smaller holes. I welded up many fittings on my last steel boat.

For a small areas lile this you can get away with very agressive and thorough power tool pretreatment and lots of coats of a good quality surface tolerant epoxy primer as a resonable substitute for grit blasting. At least in my case this worked well over a ten year period.

Larger areas make doing this properly with hand tools very very time consuming and soul destroying. And the end result will be disapointing long term because inevitably you will miss a bit somewhere, or in lots of little places. In my case I had the whole deck and cabin sandblasted and one primer coat airless sprayed onto it that afternoon, as I had done a lot of welding on deck.