Still painting

More than a month has passed since my last post, and all we have been doing is painting, repainting the paint, sanding, filling pinholes, filling dents and blemishes, sanding, sanding, sanding, sanding.

Adam, on his way to the airport, helped to
paint the tanks. Love the hair!

Some problems: The first spraypainting missed a number of critical spots, especially in places where the rust would strike. Some of these: the seam alongside the double hull, also behind stringers and under decks. Another problem: In a number of places there was still sand from the sandblasting when the painter struck. Which either cemented the sand and paint to the hull, or left the paint on top of a layer of dust and sand.

Trevor, sanding. 

Another problem is that, not far from where I work, there is a galvanising plant, and the smoke from the factory drifts over where I work. So the inside paint had a layer of what looks like dust ingrained in it.

Major sanding, in some cases grinding, was needed to get the damaged paint out. The epoxy paint  is incredibly hard, even an angle grinder was employed, and in a number of cases we went through the paint into the metal.

Alexander showing Molly the correct masking
technique. Gulliver helps.

We mixed epoxy filler and attacked all the irregularities on the hull, thereby creating another problem. Sanding the filler out clogs up sandpaper in seconds. I hope I get done before someone starts buying all the sandpaper on the market!

A number of friends came to help. Adam from Durban helped paint the tanks, and almost turned into a smurf. I got a lecture.

Alexander, an aircraft technician, helped with the spraying, but confided in me: She is never going to fly!

Bongani installing rivnuts

Reinhard helped, so did Trevor, and David and Bongani helped every Saturday and even one holiday. David did a few welding jobs we discovered, Bongani installed more than a hundred rivnuts.

Huan brought Molly and Gulliver: Two very polite kids who helped a lot.

Thanks, all of you!