More tales from the drydock

We're making very slow progress so far because all the parts have not shown up yet. Hopefully, tomorrow the new rudder shaft and it's bearings, stern tube, cutlass bearing etc. will arrive and the bent rudder will be cut off the old shaft so it can be straightened and welded back onto the new shaft.
We've done a test section of about one foot of gunnel with red oxide, then matt black, then petshop grit (harmful stuff removed) then another coat of matt black. It looks like that is what we will be doing on the rest of the gunnels.
I cut out my engine inspection hatch and we'll weld some studs around it so we can bolt a cover on (with it's rubber gasket) 

I can finally get at the front of my engine, allowing me to take the rubber cover off the heat exchanger matrix and access to the raw water pump, so I rodded the holes through the heat exchanger and gearbox cooler matrixs.
Replaced a lot of the hoses & clips and improved the flow of raw water by using copper tubing with obtuse bends in place of the rubber hose with 90 degree bends.
Also removed the Jabsco raw water pump, cleaned it, and turned the inspection cover inside out, as the inside of it was quite badly worn. Then replaced it and moved the belt to the right pulley.

I de-greased, cleaned, scraped and red oxide painted the stern section of the bilge, followed by a few coats of grey garage floor paint.

It's amazing what you find in the weedhatch of a narrowboat! I climbed up inside so that I could reach the stern bilge section to clean, scrape and paint it

Glenda finished off the blacking, all that's left is the rudder which we'll do after it's straightened and the weed hatch, which needs de-rusting, and treating with Fertan before we re-black it.
I'll also use Fertan in the rudder tube, then coat the inside and the rudder shaft with Waxoil.