Bored with sanding

I started out this week with every intention of finishing the first round of sanding on the forward cabin and heads soles however after a good start I started looking around for something else to do to relieve the monotony for a while. I decided to try and do something with the cockpit sole, it is covered with treadmaster which while being physically in reasonable condition it had a lot of paint, glue, sealant, varnish etc splashes all over some of which I will admit responsibility for others I shall deny all knowledge of. Also it needed a good scrub to remove the dirt and algae. Some time ago number two daughter bought me some 'Drill Brushes' and these proved to be ideal for cleaning between the diamond tread, I used the brush wet with soapy water, and although I used a red grade of brush which is upper mid in terms of stiffness there was no damage to the treadmaster.

The tools

The drill is an old Bosch 9.6v cordless I have had it for about 15 years and like most of these things the batteries gave up the ghost but the actual drill is still going strong so I put a flex on it and use it directly connected to the boat's battery and so far the extra volts have not had any detrimental effect on the drill motor.

Treadmaster after scrubbing

As can be seen the brush did not affect the paint etc as was to be expected but I found that this could be easily removed by rubbing gently with some 60 grit sandpaper.

After removing paint etc

There are some slightly lighter patches where the paint was sanded, they don't show up in the photograph but I am expecting them to darken down to match the rest with wear and exposure to the atmosphere. In an ideal world I would probably replace the treadmaster with fake teak but it is much improved and will suffice for the time being. Next week I will have to get back to the sanding.