Saving Old Seagulls

Looking sweet!

Oyster 49 wrote: Fri Mar 05, 2021 10:31 pm Water jacket cleaned out, and gearbox examined tonight, it was pumped completely full of grease! Under some pressure too, as the end cap lifted off, when the bolts were undone. Dirty horrible job getting it all out

Now all cleaned out, just that broken bolt to have a look at. Good news is that there is no wear at all in the bushes.

New coil ordered from Villiers parts, so this should be back together next week

Have you got a welder? if so weld a nut to the end of the broken off bolt. the heat when welding will help to free it up and the nut will give you something to grip.

Have you got a new prop or fixed the old one yet yet?

I sent the gearbox down to H-A who kindly drilled the bolt out on his mill for me.

Re the prop, ive obtained a 4 blade prop, which will do for now, but I'm still on the look out for a 3 blade bargepusher as and when one can be found.

Nudge wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:01 am Have you got a welder? if so weld a nut to the end of the broken off bolt. the heat when welding will help to free it up and the nut will give you something to grip.

I always weld a washer first then weld a nut to the washer, I got it very hot a couple of times. bolt was well in.

Cleaned the tank tonight, keen to preserve the original decal. I used paraffin, to degrease and soak, then filled with caustic and left to soak for an hour, then repeated. Finally a wash with washing up liquid and a brush. Nearly all the decal is still there
This is an early brass tank, and it’s interesting to note that the end caps seem to be a similar shape to the steel tanks, this changed to a more rounded end cap not long after the brass tank was introduced.

good stuff! i like it when things like this work out.

I always weld a washer first then weld a nut to the washer,

I do the same thing. too easy to melt the Alli otherwise