Restoration of 1981 C-22 swing keel #10580

[CloudDiver]

Speaking of my favorite Phosphoric Acid solution (Welding Degreaser and Cleaner), I've been using it to clean up my masts. Masts, yes plural. Discussed in another thread I ended up getting another Mast off Craigslist, the older oval section from a Pre 80's Fin Keel that ended up being scrapped. Well, the guy had another one, so I got that one too! Now I have THREE Masts... Ya'll knew I was crazy anyway. Who in the heck else would do this kind of Resto on a C-22! Just us NUT-JOBS!

So this pic shows the third mast next to the others before cleaning. It gives a pretty good idea of the DECADES of dirt, bird-poop, and other mess this stuff takes off. A pretty nice face lift for $12 a gallon; (please don't spray this $hit in your face, it works on metal, not good for skin!)

 

[CloudDiver]

I wish I had more pics, but I suck... sorry. Also a lot has been going on up on deck. I've been sanding to prep for primer, only about a 1/3 done working in small spurts. I've had many little tasks like grinding out spider cracks and filling as well as the final shaping of the mounts where the new stainless handrails will bolt on. More on that later, for now its back to sanding off non-skid and hopefully laying down some primer this weekend!

 

[Leeward Rail]

Here is the link to the Trailer Dolly at Harbor Freight;
http://www.harborfreight.com/600-lb-heavy-duty-trailer-dolly-69898.html

So its hard to tell from the pic, but I had to cut off the plate where the hitch ball mounts and put in new side plates to raise the whole thing up two inches or so. Problem was when you lower the jack to put the the coupler on the dolly the jack bottoms out before it seats... so its too dang short. I raised it up enough so that with the jack lowers down on the ball and the dolly picks up the load when you leaver it (as designed) which lifts the jack wheels up off the ground, but you need to leave the jack locked in the down position in case you drop it. I wish I had raised it up another just 1/2 inch... the way it is I'm barley lifting the jack wheels off the ground, but it works so I'm not cutting it up again.

Unless you have a welder and some plate steel handy I wouldn't recommend buying this dolly unless you can modify it. Its so short I can only imagine the smallest single axle trailers would be low enough to seat on it.

Luke,

From the photos at Harbor Freight, it looks like the dolly I have with some minor details differing.
http://www.tooltown.ca/600lb-Trailer-Dolly.html

In my case it's high enough without modification.
All I had to do was swap the included ball to a 2" one.
From the ground to the top of the ball on the dolly is 16"
I can lower the jack until the dolly takes the load, then pivot the jack out of the way, or even remove the jack if I wish.


Cheers,
Roy

 

[CloudDiver]

A small disaster...

Using my hand trailer I was brining the boat out of the shop this weekend and had a little accident which damaged my garage door and the stern rail.

Remember, my driveway is sloped so after crossing the door thresh-hold the trailer begins to move quickly. With my winch I can control this easily, problem is the trailer tends to drive left or right, never straight, and I have to reset the winch cable a few times since it only has about 12 feet of travel.

So this time I just set up the winch cable and strap extensions at the max length to let the trailer all the way out into the drive without having to reset, and I guided the trailer from the front using the dolly. This works very well because I can keep the trailer perfectly centered and as it picks up speed I have some degree of control until the cable and tow straps catch and stop it.

Well, everything worked just like I thought except for one small detail... The garage door wasn't fully open. The garage door opener has been disconnected for some time because it was broken anyway, and the springs only pull the door up about 85% of the way. the last panel you can push up by hand but it doesn't like to stay there. Even at this point its plenty to clear the cabin top, but the front corners of the stern rail caught the bottom edge of the lower panel as I was 2/3 out the door.

Had I been creeping it out of the shop using the winch at about 1 mph I would have seen this from inside the garage and could have easily stopped and pushed the door up further. But since I was outside using the dolly I couldn't see squat above and behind the cabin and only 6 feet before the cable stops the trailer it was moving at a pretty good clip.

So basically the pulpit caught the lower panel and tore it out of the tracks. It would have been nice if only the door was damaged because I hated it anyway, I want new insulated doors with no windows in the future. The stern rail bent back and up because all of the bolts were removed except the big ones on the two new inner legs. Basically the damage is limited to feet of the inner legs so I had to cut them off with the Plasma Torch and make new ones.

It sucks because this accident was totally avoidable. I would have been just as easy to a) use the winch for a controlled and slow movement, or b) the stern rail was supposed to be off anyway, I should have removed it before hand.

Sorry, I didn't take pictures... but at least I'm honest about my goofs. Having to make new feet sets me back a bit, welding the new ones will burn the gelcoat a little which will need grinding, filler, and sanding again. I guess The silver lining is that I didn't like the first set of feet anyway and I've already made the new ones out of wider stock. I had a fresh 1/2" drill bit for the big holes (eye bolts for split back stay) which cut super clean and right on the money. I think the new feet will fit beet and look better. I'll put up pics when I weld the new feet on.

As for the garage door... Its pretty banged up but I roughly bent the bottom edge back into shape, got the wheels back in the tracks, and re-set the cables and coil springs, it still works.

 

[Leeward Rail]

Aw man, that sucks.

I wonder if the pulpit being loose was a good thing ?
Maybe it minimized the damage.

 

[Time_Out]

Had the stern pushpit not been in place, would the damage have been to the cabin top instead? For you and your mad skills as a stainless steel welder guru, maybe this resulted in an easier overall fix.

 

[CloudDiver]

Most recent CL find, Garhauer Stainless lifting davit... Pretty sure I'll mount it starboard because with the vents there is too much on the port side. The extra mounts are pretty cheap, I might buy another socket ball and rail clamp so I can have it on either side.

I also finished fixing the stern rail. I'm actually happy I broke it now, the new feet on the inner legs are better than the old ones because I used wider flat stock. In this pic everything is bolted down and fits up perfectly. I'll take it back off tomorrow and finish weld between the tacks. I also have to fabricate the stern light mount and drill the holes fore the wire to snake through. So not really done done, but close.

 

[CloudDiver]

A little side project last night, and a big THANK YOU to Stingy Sailor for his most recent post on DIY Cockpit Scupper Grates; http://stingysailor.com/2015/10/03/make-these-diy-cockpit-scupper-grates/
I used his printed template, cut it out and taped it to a piece stainless steel (14 Ga I think). I get these cut-offs for next to nothing at Industrial Metal Supply, months ago I picked up several of these small sheet cut offs knowing I'd be using them for backing plates and such.
I have a vintage Atlas two axis drill press table with a vice bolted on, makes drilling the pattern easy and accurate. Rather than mark all the holes with a center punch I can just use a small bit to accurately pilot all the centers;

 

[CloudDiver]

The outside line is marked with a sharpie. I'll cut out the shape with my plasma cutter after drilling the holes. here the template is removed after marking all the hole centers.

 

[CloudDiver]

Now all the drain holes are drilled out to 15/64", then I use a counter sink bit specifically for metal to chamfer the holes lightly. I made sure to show the counter sink bit in the picture, much cleaner than trying to use a counter sink made for wood.
I'll make another tonight and cut both out with the plasma, clean up the edges on the stationary sander and buff on the stationary wheel.

 

[CloudDiver]

Continuing the fabrication after work today;
I drilled the holes for the second scupper grate and rough cut them both freehand with the plasma cutter;

 

[CloudDiver]

I put them on the stationary sander to clean up the lines. I used a fence to straighten the two sides then round off the corners and the main curve, followed by the scotch bride discs on the die grinder to soften up all the edges. Finally, a couple passes on the sisal wheel and then more on the polishing wheel. There are still some light scratches that should come out with a little more time on the sisal wheel and a re-polish;

 

[CloudDiver]

Its dark out, but you get the idea... You can see the blue epoxy filler where I've been grinding out all the spider cracks around the cockpit. Every time I finish one I find a new one!

 

[Gene Neill]

Nicely DONE!!

 

[$tingy Sailor]

Sweet. If anyone was going to make them out of SS, I would have bet it would be you!

 

[CloudDiver]

I've been working on various things this holiday weekend, mostly preps so I can get the primer on the decks and cabin top. Some more spider cracks have been filled and sanded. There are a few little ones left I bet, not really picture worthy I guess. Anyway, I did finally paint out the bilge around the volcano with Interlux Bilge Kote. Looks really clean down there now!

 

[CloudDiver]

It was crazy hot this weekend so I've been doing quick stuff in the morning on the boat and then going into the garage the rest of the day, mostly cleaning up and organizing the shop along with little projects. I finally solved the problem of mounting the Nav Lights on the bow and stern. I thought I was going to weld a tang on, but that would be a royal pain, difficult to polish, and I didn't want something that could get bent or twisted and probably be really sharp to boot. So I've been looking for plastic rail clamps that I could adapt in some way to mount the AquaSignal series 25 light bodies. The version of those lights AquaSignal made that came with an integrated rail clamp seem to be extinct, besides that they were $60 each! So I remembered a post Capt Don had made about how he mounts his solar panel on his stern rail and he showed a pic of the plastic clamps. Luckily I found the same thing at West Marine for $25 a pair... so $12 for each light isn't bad. They have a pretty beefy feel, very thick marine plastic similar to King Starboard material, like a poly cutting board. I used the left over scrap of 1/4" Starboard I had from when I made the new fold down Electrical Panel to cut some small squares as backing plates for the lights. I had to drill some holes on the inside of the Nav Light body to match up with screw mounts in the clamp, but it was no problem. I just had to use slightly longer stainless machine screws (#12's I think) than the ones that came with the clamp. Turned out really nice and it a pretty easy project.

 

[CloudDiver]

BTW, in case anyone had to look twice... I finally changed the thread name, dropping the 'Winter' as the first word. When I started this back in October 2014 I was sure I'd be done by June 2015 at the latest. Here we are a year later and I'm still plugging away, LOL! I'm sure anyone looking at fixing up a C22 could learn a lot from this thread, but at the same time it also a pretty good WARNING!

 

[Gene Neill]

Lookin good man, great solution for the lights. The new design has a stainless plate welded on the rail, but my stern one is broken, so it's just held on with a black zip tie. LOL Wish I could weld stainless!!

 

[Zach Grammon]

Everybody knows San Diego doesn't have winters! I always assumed Winter was a state of mind...sort of a Winter of Preparation.

I'm impressed with the look of Bilge Coat. It looks pretty similar to Brightsides in the pictures. Also, it will be so easy to wipe clean and suppress mold growth.