Calling all Narrowboat owners past and present!

@Merlin Cat . Alex.
All of the above but I'd be using this.
As per the people that actually manufacture the windows for our boats

https://www.wesleywindows.co.uk/window-spare-parts/arboseal.html

Will fill any ripples in the steel, rust pits and moves with the expansion and contraction we get during the seasons.

 

I gave it a good key with 180 (anodising is rock hard as you know) and used this. Magical stuff, it separates itself into primer, colour and laquer by magic
Rustoleum are clever people.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rust-Oleum...86&hvtargid=pla-420503491826&psc=1&th=1&psc=1
It was £6.99 at screwfix 3 years ago and it still looks as good 3 years later. A bit metallic sparkly, but not too bad, I'd have preferred plain but this actually claimed to paint on ali without primer so being lazy I gave it a go.

 

I probably should have used that but Caldwell who made mine use the foam so I did as told. To be fair they also run a bead of silicon round the outside.

 

thanks for that Zed ...

 

we buy it from here slightly narrow but cheaper https://www.sealantsonline.co.uk/ProductGrp/Adshead-ratcliffe-arboseal-gz-butyl-tape

 

i dont have a narrowboat (yet, watch this space)

but I'm fully engrossed in this thread.... i need a new, interesting life i think

Sent from my ELE-L09 using Tapatalk

 

That'd work
It was the Arboseal that was the thing so I just went to Wesley's page for speed. Good spot on the size and cost

 

It was gold anodising so I just sanded it until it was all nice and matt. Some of it came off down to the aluminium, some didn't but it's an ultra thin electro chemical layer rather than paint so it didn't matter whether it all came off or not. Despite the ugly before pic it was still very smooth/level if you see what I mean. Have a shufty around your marina and you'll see what I mean. Honestly though - gold? Who would think that looks good? I suppose it was a vague match for brass, near enough for a man on a galloping horse anyway. I should maybe have gone for a silver colour so they'd look more like they actually are - aluminium.

I did take off the drip rail and some other bits to prep & paint separately but the main frame I left in one piece and masked the window and it's seal. I only painted the outside, the inside was still fine.

 

I thought all new windows ( and doors) now had to be grey.

 

Thing is anodizing is a sapphire layer created electrochemically which is dyed during processing. It acts as a very hard corrosion preventing layer. Once you sand it off you have bare aluminium which is "protected" by a very thin layer of sapphire created by contact with air. Any slight mechanical or chemical damage, it corrodes again and goes dull or whitish. If you keep up the damage, it corrodes away. Any metal fixings plus damp and the galvanic currents created also eat away at that sanded layer..
So if you dont like your gold window frames and want silver its better to paint them or replace the extrusions with silver anodised..

This also applies to sanding those "dirty" Devon or Westy windows.. if its still got the anodizing on it it will just stay the same.. sand anodizing off and it will forever need sanding or polishing as the metal rots away.

 

Yeah, you'll be fine. That's where the Arboseal works well coz it's a thick, tough, sticky layer rather than a mastic that 'strings' if the surfaces are a bit wonky. You can always add some more mechanical fixings neatly if they won't sit right.
M4 brass machine screws are available if that's what was in them but rivets are widely used as well. More of a faff with a drill and tap coz the m4s break easily

 

They'll fall down the inside and be forever forgotten . Seriously, they'll get caught up in the insulation and webs. You may find that when the windows come out that the backs of the drilled rivets can just be picked or vacuumed out.

I think you should be able to do it all from the outside. Be really, really careful and use thin blades to cut behind the windows all around. Don't bend them otherwise you'll be looking for glass as well

 

I have 4 new narrow boat windows in me shed, gold , main window sliding top window shuttle type, when I get round to it Im going to Ebay them, anyone any idea what they may be worth??

 

Bugger all. The chances of them fitting someone's holes are so slim.
Edit - I'll have to retract that after checking ebay sold items it seems there is a market for them. GLWTS