Keel Bolt Cleaning

[Lee Hadjiosif]

I want to clean and re-coat my rusty keel bolts and nuts. The SS backing plates are like new! What is the best method of cleaning them and re-coat them? Wire brush? Naval jelly? It looks like its just surface rust since the boat is not that old and the bilge is dry. Any advice from experience will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

If they are rusty, I’d suggest you remove completely one nut at a time and inspect the hidden threads to see of you have a cosmetic problem or a bolt rust problem.
if the former, don’t use a steel wire bush as that will only contribute to the problem. Bronze or brass brushes are preferable.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

I want to clean and re-coat my rusty keel bolts and nuts.

The best method, if you can get in there, is to go at it with a Dremel and SS rotary wire brush. Given a perfect world, you would do this job while on the hard.

What do you plan to re-coat them with. Nothing really comes to mind.

 

[Lee Hadjiosif]

The best method, if you can get in there, is to go at it with a Dremel and SS rotary wire brush. Given a perfect world, you would do this job while on the hard.

What do you plan to re-coat them with. Nothing really comes to mind.

Some kind of epoxy paint i hope to find.

 

[dlochner]

Some kind of epoxy paint i hope to find.

Epoxy would be a poor choice. If any water gets under the paint it may cause crevice corrosion in the SS bolts. The water will quickly become deoxygenated which causes the corrosion. A better choice would be to spray with CRC Corrision Protection or BoeShield.

 

[jviss]

If they are stainless, just leave them bare! The oxygen will help them retain their corrosion resistance.

 

[Bob S]

If they’re stainless you could try using spotless stainless which I believe is a citric acid passivation.

 

[Dalliance]

Rust on keel bolts and nuts is concerning. They should be 316 stainless so they don’t rust. Lower grade 304 stainless can get surface rust quickly, as would ordinary steel. I agree with dlochner that epoxy would be a bad choice. Stainless steel is best left exposed to the air. If they’re not stainless, I would second dlochner’s recommendation of CRC or BoeShield.
Photos would help us better understand the condition.

 

[dLj]

I want to clean and re-coat my rusty keel bolts and nuts. The SS backing plates are like new! What is the best method of cleaning them and re-coat them? Wire brush? Naval jelly? It looks like its just surface rust since the boat is not that old and the bilge is dry. Any advice from experience will be appreciated. Thanks.

Please provide pictures.

Good advice above - but I'd like to see these before commenting further.

dj

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

Good advice above - but I'd like to see these before commenting further.

Good catch. We just assume everybody has SS keel bolts and they always have a bit of discolourization on them. Are OP's just discoloured or really rusty ?