Polishing a Toad - Part 2

Once the required plating was done on the hull of Toad, a couple of coats of blacking and it is looking better

 Next, the engine was removed and stripped down. The oil drained was a 50:50 mixture of oil and water, which won't have helped, however there were no major problems found

The block was given a coat of engine enamel and was re-assembled with new shells on the Crankshaft

All of the valves were ok, so they were reground into the head with new guides fitted.

Meanwhile Ian has cleaned up the shell and Toad is now looking better in primer.

Achilles Last Stand Part 2 - bottom lift??

The engine looks to be in a "challenging" state. Once cleaned up I started to strip it down.  Surprisingly, especially as this engine has spent many years in a river, nothing was seized on the engine.  I could almost go as far as saying it was in good condition.

The same couldn't be said of the swim.  There was extensive rust around the joint between the uxter plate and the swim, so we decided just to remove it

Gone!!

The old swim was then used as a pattern to make a new one...

 Once back on The boat looked a whole lot better

A coat of blacking and things are looking up

 One of the con rods in the engine was slightly warped, but this was the only replacement needed.  The engine block and cylinders are now back together. Loads of progress

Polishing a Toad - Part I

I have often walked past this boat which seems to be abandoned.  I wonder what the story is, why it has been left.

Then one day, Sam and Jay walked into the boatyard, "We need a boat painting and a new engine".  This is their boat "TOAD", it turns out that they have been in Australia for several years, but now want their boat restoring as they will be returning to the UK. I asked why they wanted a new engine, and they said that it hasn't run for three years, and it is an old engine.  I think the old engine will probably last longer than a new one!

The engine is installed with open skin tanks, and a useless external cooling pump

The wiring is a mess, but I've seen worse

 The engine room is full of water, so, armed with a new battery, I soon cleared this with the bilge pump.

Having freed off the starter, we soon had the engine running and sailed down the locks to the boatyard.  The gearbox had a five second delay before changing gear, so this was "interesting"

Ready to start work!

Achilles Last Stand - Part I

The cabin roof was too badly damaged, so we built a replacement.  First steel bars were notched, then bent and welded to form curved beams.  These were then welded to a sheet of steel, forcing it into a curve across the roof section

 Turning this over, slots were cut across the roof at intervals.  When welded up, these slots pulled the roof into a curve along its length forming a compound curved roof panel.

 A trial fit, a bit of a trim, then welded into place.

A couple of strips of "rivets" down each side, and the roof is on, with a very pleasing compound curve.

The trouble with twitter...

Twitter is a convenient way of posting messages, photos, or almost anything from wherever you are, from your phone.  No computer, little typing, formatting, etc.

The trouble is, this is so convenient that I don't seem to ever update the blog anymore...

In fact it has been over two years....

During which time lots have things have happened, and some things haven't happened.

Some things may have happened that I don't know about and some things may not have happened, but I haven;'t noticed yet.

Other than that it is now more than two years later.

However, even though I have been in a deep dark tunnel at some time over the last two years...

I will now try to resist the urge just to twit