Steel Hull Pre-Treating

June 14, 2008

I just bought a 55 ft. house boat. I have had 4 "pin holes" cut out from the area under the boat about 4 ft. from the motor compartment to about 7 ft. towards the front and patches welded back into the holes. I have looked all over my boats bottom,(it's in dry dock right now) and I have yet to find even one Zink plate with the exception of the out drive.Should I put Zink plates on it before I put it back into the water and how many should I install? Are they fixed to the hull in some fashion such as screws, bolts, or what? I'm putting a heck of a lot of money in this boat and I want it right the first time because I can't afford to pay 1,000 bucks to have it hauled out every time it springs a leak. I also looked in the bildges yesterday and I found about 3 pounds of flaked rust in a total if 9 bildge sections through out the boat. I cleaned it all out, sanded the bildges,then vacuumed the areas clean and put a very thick coat of primer back on all the exposed areas. Is this going to be enough to protect the bildges from the inside now and if not, what else should I do to them? I am also in the process of sanding the bottom and appling two coats of non fowling bottom paint on the entire bottom. The bottom looks real good. No flaking, peeling or blistering. There are no places on the bottom that are down to the metal except the patches the welder put on. My wife and I are going to live aboard the boat and we don't want to wake up one morning with wet feet! The bottom also has several places that look good enough to polish with a buffer and bring out a shine. Any help you can give me on this, would be most appreciated...

Lonnie Bryant
Owner of "BEACH MUSIC"

Lonnie Bryant
fun only - Ft. Mill, S.C.