Gamebird's makeover

Gamebird has reached her sixth birthday and it has to be said that some of her paint work is in less than pristine condition. Well, she has been about a bit. There are bits of bare aluminium showing through where the paint has flaked off and  the touch up painting which has  been done over the years is less than perfect. I had washed her so often that the gold coach lines were almost worn off. We decided that the time had come for a "new look".

The first problem we encountered was our failure to track down any boat painters in Scotland. No problem, I thought, we can put her on her trailer and take her somewhere ..... but where? Sea Otter offered to respray her if we took her to Chesterfield for a couple of days but that is a long way to go for a paint job.  OK, what about taking her to a coach works? Good idea. Out came the Yellow Pages and far from being prepared to take on the challenge of painting a boat (must be more interesting than cars and vans, I thought) I found that the most I got was an offer to come and look at the boat "sometime" but they never did. OK, we will paint her ourselves, was the next thought. It has to be said that although I can do a decent paint job on wood etc, I was not so confident that I could produce that lovely smooth finish which Gamebird has at the moment. But where to get the right paint? The tin of touch up paint we had had no makers name on it but a list of what were presumably the colours which went into the mixing. I took the tin along to our local coach works (Calder Coachcrafts)  who had done work on my car recently (just a little dent, honest). Some success at last, Peter said he could have the paint analysed and make more up for me. Great. Now about the sign writing and the bird on the side? No sign writers up here either :-(. Then someone mentioned vinyl graphics and that seemed like the answer. From never having heard about vinyl graphics to being able to judge whether a supplier could do what we  wanted was a  steep learning curve but we found a local company (Right Signs) who seemed to fit the bill and was not only prepared to make up the vinyl for us but to come along and fit it for us. Progress. But I was still not happy that we could produce a good paint job ourselves so I went back to chat to Peter at Calder Coachcrafts. He rose to the challenge of  painting a boat in his workshop and a date was agreed for us to take her along. I later discovered that Peter has also painted an aeroplane in his workshop!

We were getting there ...BUT  Iain had often said he wasn't very fond of the bird on the side of the boat and wouldn't it be nice to have a Grouse? Quite appropriate as we are both fond of a glass of Grouse! I found the Grouse web site (  http://www.famousgrouse.com/ ) and sent of an email asking if we could use one of their grouse on Gamebird and they very kindly gave us permission. Not only did they say we could use a grouse of theirs but they were extremely helpful in suggesting different versions and sending computer files of what we decided to use. We were tempted by scuba grouse and water grouse but in the end we settled on an unadorned grouse. There was a grouse in a hammock and we thought this would be ideal on the wooden  circle which we put over the port hole at night. Right Signs ( http://www.therightsigns.co.uk/ )got to work to make up the lettering and grouses (grice?).

Gamebird came back form Calder Coachcrafts looking beautiful. Peter had matched the original colour and with the gold window frames etc, she looked really smart, but she needed a name... Phill at Right Signs wanted a dry day which was not windy to attach the vinyl and it was very frustrating as the days past and none were suitable. In the end, time was running out and I arranged with Tommy to get the use of an unused factory in the local industry park and Phill applied the vinyl there. There is obviously a knack in applying vinyl and when Phill was finished she looked excellent.

The next day we brought her home again, finished storing bits and pieces on board and took her back to her mooring at Ratho on the Union Canal.

From the first thought of having a makeover to the completed job took several months but what interesting months they were and we now have a boat which looks superb. She always was a smart little boat but with the super paint job and vinyl she is fantastic. Peter and Phill both rose to the challenge (neither had worked on a boat like Gamebird before)  and did a superb job of which they can be justifiably proud. Many thanks are also due to Tommy for letting us use one of the empty units as this gave Phill a dry, wind free and well lit area to work in.

Here are some photos I took during the process.

I realised when putting these photos on the web site that they don't do justice to the lettering and grouse. I therefore plan to take more photos on Saturday when we are taking Gamebird to an event in Edinburgh. Come back for another visit soon! Here they are

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