Oil Clean-up and Re-paint Bilge

[Sandarm]

Howdy to you all,

I am the happy support system for my 1957, 30' Connie. She's in very fine shape and I want to keep her that way, so last fall I pulled her engines for complete re-builds. Not an easy task, but soon they'll be ready. In the mean time, I've stripped all of the varnish topsides with a heat-gun, and am generally maintaining her to the best of my ability. I will have some varnish questions soon, but not yet.

Now that the engines are out, I have enough room to do a thorough cleaning of the engine bays and the aft section behind the gas tanks, leading up to fresh paint. Unfortunately, because we couldn't get the engines out in one piece, I wound up pulling the trannies off while they were still in the boat. They were mostly-emptied-of-oil, but not quite, so I wound up with a mess in the bilge, throughout the boat. After sopping up what oil I could, and wiping down with paint thinner, it's still not perfect. I want to apply a fresh new coat of bilge paint in the original grey. How can I best make sure the paint sticks and that I get a great result? Also, are there any other problems I should look out for in the process?

Thanks,

Sandy

[Doug P]

From an old Hamiltonian. You will get quite a few recommendations as to how to clean the bilge. The answers will depend on where the boat is and what is environmentally allowed. Google bilge cleaners and there are many out there. I have used Simple Green or TSP with very hot water. Good luck.

[Peter M Jardine]

I second the TSP. When I bought Vanora, my 1964 36 foot Challenger, she had typical 40 year old bilges: filthy. I proceeded to start cleaning, with the boat on the hard, and here is a few of the things I did.

1. Warm water, laundry detergent, and several sizes of scrub brushes. Use several pails of warm water with generous amounts
of detergent. Liquid laundry detergent is an excellent degreaser. Rinse, Rinse, Rinse. Repeat.

2. Trisodium phosphate, mixed with laundry detergent. I do this generally every fall on the hard, scrub around with a soft brush
and rinse, with the bilge drain out.

3. TSP and warm water. You might consider this as a follow up by itsell, but I find the mix to be best, and don't be afraid to put
the water right to the bilge, as in, running the hose for 20-30 minutes.


Let the bilge dry thoroughly, then take a look at the garboard planks, or the garboard plywood. At the low level in the bilge, the plywood takes quite a beating, and it also starts to get furry. From the keelson up to the engine stringer on either side the full length of the engine room, prime with Interlux 404 epoxy primecoat. It will seal up the plywood really well, and prime the wood to accept the bilgekote. Make sure everything is as clean as you can get it. I repainted the bilge eight years ago, and this past summer, when we were doing a major rebuild, we repainted the entire inside of the hull, or as much as we could reach. A total of 14 quarts of Bilgekote great were used, applied with a brush and a 4 inch foam roller.

Definitely the time to paint is when the engines are out.