Pedestal repaint

The pedestal on our boat is the original Cheoy Lee Edson knockoff. The wheel turns a beveled pinion which turns a matching gear attached to a shaft that turns a drum just below the cockpit sole. Edson steerers have a chain sprocket driven by the wheel, the bicycle type chain is bent directly to two lengths of cable which are riven through two sheaves outboard and then to opposite sides of the quadrant. The Cheoy Lee version has a single cable doubled in the middle at the drum and then led as the Edson models. I said all of that so that I could say this: our steering is broken. The starboard sheave broke free from the hull and the cable and its splicing hardware is missing. I have since reglassed the sheave block to the hull and overhauled both sheaves. I just need to find specs on the cable to use for the system and then reassemble it.

In the meantime, I have taken the pedestal which was flaking badly down to bare metal and primed and topcoated it with Interlux Brightsides. Its all shiny and new looking- to bad it doesn't do anything yet.