Landy, Scotland & Paint

A day of running around today so no time spent at the barn. I’m pleased to say that I have my Landrover back and although I could really have done without the not inconsiderable unplanned cost I now have a much improved vehicle. It seems that that the transfer gearbox had destroyed itself and as a new one was needed it was a good opportunity to upgrade to a Discovery one as it has higher ratios. This means higher cruising speed and better fuel consumption, all comparative of course because it’s still a Landrover but every little helps! I now have a Landy with a TDI 200 Discovery engine and half a Discovery gearbox so I’ll have to be careful I don’t end up with a different model of Landrover. I’m also considering the money an investment as I need the Landy to be reliable because I am planning a couple of ‘reccy’ trips this year to try and find a suitable place on the coast where I can transport ‘Gleda’ for the final stretch before launch. Until recently I felt almost certain that the likely place would be Cornwall however I have now added the opposite end of the country to the list, namely the West coast of Scotland. Why? Well apparent from being a beautiful part of the country the many sea lochs mean that there are bound to be a greater number of possible places suitable for my purposes and costs are likely to be lower, as I say it’s just something to consider at the moment but I can see a week being spent living in the Landy and exploring later in the year.

Part of my running around today was related to ‘Gleda’ as I was trying to source some Acrylic paint to use inside the hulls. I recently read an article in Practical Boat Owner extolling the virtues of this paint as an excellent solution to painting the interior surfaces of a boat whether they be GRP, timber, epoxy or even Perspex. The paint is water-based and self priming and has some ‘high-build’ qualities which make it similar to ‘flow coat’. Its also very tolerant to less than idea application conditions so all in all I figured it was worth trying particularly as the paint I previously used was a two-part epoxy that was frankly a pain in the arse. The two paints specifically refered to were Sadolin Supadec and Dulux Aquatech, I managed to find the latter and I’ll be giving it a go tomorrow, I’ll let you know how it goes.